Members of the Minority caucus in Parliament chanted and waved placards with inscription ‘BRING BACK DOMELEVO TO FIGHT CORRUPTION’ to register their displeasure at the President’s recent decision to remove Daniel Yao Domelevo from office as Auditor General.
The NDC side in Parliament took advantage of President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation Address delivery to register their protest.
On March 3, 2021, the former Auditor General was directed by the President to proceed on retirement after going on leave for 167 days.
The President in a letter indicated that his( Domelovo’s) documents showed that he was supposed to have retired in June 2020 and therefore thanked him for his services rendered to the country.
“The attention of the President of the Republic has been drawn to records and documents made available to this Office by the Audit Service, that indicate that your date of birth is 1st June, 1960, and that in accordance with article 199 (1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor-General was 1st June, 2020.” The letter read in parts.
Mr. Dumelevo is set to organize a thanksgiving service at the Christ The King Catholic Church to mark an end to an era and his service to the country.
Domelevo’s role in fighting corruption in the country has been praised by many as in 2018, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged the huge savings that the former Auditor-General made to Ghana.
He noted in his state of the nation address in 2018 that Mr. Domelevo has identified a staggering amount of GH¢5.4 billion as constituting fictitious claims.
However, in President Akufo-Addo’s first State of The Nation Address to the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic, the Minority caucus expected Government to touch on the issue with regards to fighting corruption.
The President stated, “Ours is not a government that shies away from public scrutiny. Far from it. That is not the NPP way. That is why, in 2001, under the outstanding leadership of the 2nd President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, and with me as his Attorney General, the Criminal Libel Law was repealed to protect and expand media freedoms in the country, and, in 2003, the Public Procurement Act was introduced to protect the public purse. That is why it was my government that took the bold steps in 2018 to bring about the establishment of an independent prosecutor, with the setting up of the Office of Special Prosecutor.”
He also indicated that in 2019, Government enacted the Right to Information Act which had been shirked by previous administrations, despite decades of agitation by journalists and civil society groups.
“That is why it was my government that, in 2019, enacted the Right to Information Act, which had been shirked by previous administrations, despite decades of agitation by journalists and civil society groups. That is why, within two years of being in office, we more than doubled funding for accountability institutions of state, like CHRAJ, EOCO, the Judiciary and the Auditor General. Government and the people expect those in charge of our governance institutions to do their work with professionalism and good faith.” The President stated in his State of The Nation Address