Daniel Yaw Domelevo
Strenuous moves by the Auditor-General (AG), Daniel Yaw Domelevo, to appear as a saint in the eyes of the general public has backfired as it has emerged that his petitions to the President was filled with inaccurate occurrences.
Documents available to DAILY GUIDE indicate that the allegations made by Mr. Domelevo to the President were factually flawed.
In one instance, the AG claims the board chairman attempted to commission the auditing of some 213 MMDAs without his knowledge.
Interestingly, as at the time claimed by Mr. Domelevo, the Audit Service Board had not been sworn into office by the President and no member of the board at the time had the power to act in such a capacity.
The AG who is running the Audit Service more or less in the media, has taken cover under civil society organizations, claiming that he is being hounded out of office by the board.
Domelevo in a petition dated July 27, 2018, is making claims of interference by the Board Chairman, Edward Dua Agyeman and requests the President to intervene in the “unlawful interferences” by the board chairman whom the AG is accusing of manipulating the procurement processes, among others.
Mr. Domelevo’s petition also levelled several allegations against Prof. Dua Agyeman including “manipulating the procurement process”, “attempting to commission an audit”, “interfering with audit process.”
The AG in his petition to the President also accused the board chairman of holding a meeting with another deputy AG, Blessed Baffuor-Atta and others, to discuss the audit of MMDAs’ liabilities without his knowledge.
In the petition, Mr. Domelevo indicated that “in another development, the board chairman invited Mr. Blessed Baffour-Atta, a deputy AG to a meeting attended by the Chairman and others to discuss the audit of MMDAs liabilities without my knowledge.
“The DAG showed me a letter inviting the chairman in his capacity as the chairman of the Audit Service Board to that meeting.
“I again questioned the chairman as to his mandate to audit in the Public Service and the reason for calling the DAG to that meeting without my knowledge. His response was that he thought that the audit in question was below my level as the Auditor-General”, stated the AG’s petition to the President.
A letter attached to the petition by Mr. Domelevo indicated that the board chairman’s meeting with the deputy AG on auditing the 213 MMDAs was supposed to have happened on August 18, 2017.
But this accusation is flawed as the Audit Service Board was sworn in on October 11, 2017, and Prof. Dua Agyeman could not have been a board chairman by the date claimed by the AG in his petition.
Our information also indicates that the letters appointing the members of the Audit Service Board which was signed by the Chief of Staff was dated September 8, 2017, and the Board was sworn in a month later.
There is, therefore, no evidence that any of the members acted in the capacity of board members until they were sworn in by the President.
Surcharge and Disallowance
In a bid to further blow his own trumpet in public, the AG speaking at the 3rd Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu Memorial Lectures claims the Audit Service was reluctant to surcharge and disallow unlawful expenditures until OccupyGhana went to the Supreme Court and the apex court gave consequential orders that the AG must honour the constitutional obligation.
But investigations indicate that the current board chairman, Prof. Dua Agyeman, was recognised by the Audit Service on February 2018 for implementing the powers of Surcharge and Disallowance against some officials of the Ghana National Lotteries and also implemented the provisions of the Audit Service Act 2000, (ACT 584).
The recognition was well embossed on a citation given to the board chairman by the Audit Service which concluded as: “We are proud to have you as our new Board Chairman. Ayekoo.”
A private citizen has already dragged the AG to the Supreme Court seeking an interpretation of the extent of the powers of the AG vis-à-vis the Audit Service Board.
The applicant, Isaac Wilberforce Mensah, a journalist and a private legal practitioner, in his writ, highlighted the need for constitutional interpretation to make clear the lines of authority and the degree of independence of the AG who has promised not to abide by any decision taken by the Audit Service Board.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak