When former President John Evans Atta Mills of blessed memory ordered an Auditor-General to proceed on a forced leave, a subtle dismissal, little did we know at the time that same was going to be meted out to another head of the same agency.
By the decision of the Supreme Court that Domelevo’s forced leave was unconstitutional, a topic has been presented to the court of public opinion to discourse over and for varied judgments to be given.
The outcomes are interesting especially as the internet archives are able with a strike of the finger to produce records which would have taken days if not weeks to produce.
Some of the issues being discussed on political street corners are whether or not so-called independent institutions are law onto themselves and therefore not accountable to anybody, not even the appointing bodies.
We have learnt about how champagne was popped in opposition NDC circles in which the said Domelovo has a large following. And why not, after all he belongs to the fraternity?
For the civil society groups which partook in the popping of the celebratory champagne, are they of the view that while Domelevo worked he was not to be accountable to the appointing authority?
Just wondering how any government can work efficiently when such entities are not accountable to anybody not even the legislature made up of the people’s representatives or deputies.
The reason he was asked to clear his desk and proceed on leave has hardly been examined and we wonder whether the
Bench considered that factor in arriving at their learned position.
Good corporate governance practices and best practices dictate that employees take their leave on annual basis. Domelevo had worked for four years and took only about ten days leave and had an outstanding 123 days leave.
And did the Governing Board approve any request to suspend his leave or he could do that unilaterally or convert the 123 days leave into cash when the time was due for him to retire?
As an auditor, will Domelevo not query such an occurrence if his team had tumbled on a case like this in any public service?
We are breeding monsters in our efforts to take the hand of government off these independent institutions. The people heading these institutions are humans and not angels and therefore susceptible to all human frailties. This is the reason why the principles of check and balances as advanced by Montesquieu, must be in place to ensure that these so-called independent bodies also stay within the narrow confines of the constitutional dictates of our political ambience.
If this is not done sooner we will be breeding unaccountable state institutions which could turn round to devour us. Let us not forget about procurement breaches in some of these independent bodies where the heads think they do not account to anybody like the case of the EC Chairperson in 2016.
For now Domelevo can celebrate the decision of the court in style with NDC clapping for him.
Wonderful country, strange opposition who until now think President Akufo-Addo is in the pocket of the judiciary. They think so when judgments do not favour them.