Pressure Group, OneGhana Movement has asked the government to stop disturbing the Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo.
The group said in a statement that they are gravely concerned about what appears to be a clear case of witch-hunting to prevent arguably one of only a handful of Ghana’s long-standing celebrated anti-corruption fighters in public service from doing his work.
“The latest twist to the hunt is as ridiculous as it is a most shameless act against the Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo who was extra judicially forced to take 167 days leave from work, at a critical point in time in the case against then Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo over the Kroll scandal. The letters of queries issued by the Board of the Audit Service (expired, acting, or substantive) at this time, cannot be elevated to any judicial orders preventing Mr. Domelevo from fully exercising his constitutional mandate even if for only the next three months.
“In fact, even if the lame suggestion of a crime by the Board were pursued, such a pursuit would not stop him from exercising his mandate unless a court so decided, or the President acted through due process of law in that direction.
We note that Mr. Domelevo has been duly celebrated at home and abroad by individuals and organizations, including a World Bank report on corruption acknowledging him as improving the Audit Service’s image and its ability to execute its mandate as only one of three of the best accountability institutions in the world. This was at a time when foreign missions publicly expressed deep concern about what appeared to be an onslaught on integrity institutions and individuals fighting corruption in Ghana.
“We are reminded that even Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Jerry John Rawlings had their citizenship questioned by their detractors and urge Mr. Domelevo to be unshaken by the laughable dirt digging to smear his enviable reputation.
In the case of BRUCE v. ATTORNEY-GENERAL in 1967, our courts noted the fact, which has not changed much even today, that that “Registers of baptism are evidence of date and place of baptism … but not of the date or place of birth. . . “may be strictly applicable in England where provision was made from early times for the registration of births of children. It should
obviously not be applied too strictly in a country in which . . . “everything, the Native Law itself
included, depends on oral tradition.”
“It is obvious that several decades ago when young Domelevo effected the corrections now being used to further a sinister agenda to keep him out of office, he did so as honestly as some other Ghanaians may have done. Consequently, except by any process of law, Mr. Domelevo must be left to serve his full term and is more than worthy of his lawful entitlements upon retirement. We recommend an extension of his stay within the permissible limits of law, if any, as he is most worthy having worked to improve the image and standing of the institution and is on record as the only Auditor-General to have fought and won to recover millions of cedis for the State”.
comment comes after the Board alleged that records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) provided by the Mr Domelevo indicated that his date of birth was 1960 when he joined the scheme on October 1, 1978.
The Board said again that the record also showed that the hometown of Mr. Domelevo is Agbetofe in Togo; making him non-Ghanaian but on October 25, 1993, some changes were made.
While the date of birth changed to June 1, 1961, the hometown of the Auditor-General was now Ada in the Greater Accra Region, the board claim in a three-page letter addressed to Mr. Domelevo on Tuesday March 2, just a day before he resumed work after proceeding on compulsorily leave, on Wedenesday March 3.
The board further noted that he was due for retirement on June 1, 2020.
“The date of birth on your Ghanaian passport number A45800, issued on 28th February 1996 is 1st June 1961. That place of birth is stated as Kumasi, Ashanti Region,” the correspondence stated.
The Board said Mr. Domelevo’s reference to a Parish Priest and provision of his contact for further verification of his date of birth is not admissible.
“Observation of your responses and explanations contained in your above reference letter make your date of birth and Ghanaian nationality even more doubtful and clearly establishes that you have made false statements contrary to law.”
The Board consequently insisted that Mr. Domelevo was due for compulsory retirement on June 1, 2020, and was in fact not a Ghanaian but a Togolese.
“Records made available to the Board indicate that your date of retirement was 1st June 2020 and as far as the Audit Service is concerned you are deemed to have retired,” it noted.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
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