Anti-corruption crusader, Vitus Azeem is questioning President Nana Akufo-Addo’s deafening silence on the wrangling over the suitability of Daniel Yao Domelevo as Auditor General.
Mr. Azeem believes the President has an inescapable responsibility of putting the matter to rest to prove his unreserved commitment to tackling the age-old corruption in the country’s governance system.
Just as one may be aware, a day to Mr. Domelevo’s resumption to work following the expiration of his forced accumulated leave, the Audit Board is challenging the nationality and age of the Auditor General claiming that he is already due for retirement.
But Vitus Azeem is of the view that this action is “a fight against corruption fighters” and requires the President’s immediate intervention.
“This is a serious matter. The President is the appointing authority. He cannot keep quiet. It is the responsibility of the President to come in and resolve this matter. We cannot continue like this.”
“If the President has promised Ghanaians that he was determined to be incorruptible, how does he fight corruption if he doesn’t support institutions that he has set up to fight corruption?” he quizzed on Eyewitness News on Wednesday.
When he was asked if there would be any repercussions should the President step in the matter, Mr. Azeem opined that the President already interfered in the independence of the Auditor General when he ordered him to proceed on leave adding that: “It will not be an intervention but rather solving the problem he [the President] created”.
Despite tensions with the Audit Service Board, Daniel Yaw Domelevo showed up at his office at the Audit Service Headquarters in Accra on Wednesday, March 3, 2021.
However, he refused to comment on matters surrounding his forced leave or the current controversies.
A worried Vitus Azeem stated that following the compulsory accumulated leave, he sees the current turn of events as a continuation of efforts to frustrate the Auditor General in performing his duties.
“Assuming that there were irregularities about his data, what did the Audit Board do about it? Why did they wait all this while before raising them today when he is expected to come to work? It is a follow-up of actions to push him out of office,” Mr. Azeem argued.
Audit Board’s concerns
In a series of letters between the Chairman of the Audit Service Board, Prof. Edward Dua Agyeman and Mr. Domelevo, the Board alleged that records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) provided by the Auditor-General indicated that his date of birth was in 1960.
But Mr. Domelevo holds that his date of birth is June 1, 1961, because the 1960 date was a mistake.
He said he noticed that the 1960 date of birth was a mistake when he checked his birth details in the baptismal register of the Catholic Church in Adeemmra.
The board also said records also showed that the home town of Mr. Domelevo is Agbetofe in Togo but was now Ada in the Greater Accra Region.
Addressing the Togo links, Mr. Domelevo said his grandfather was a native of Ada in the Greater Accra Region but migrated to Togo and stayed at Agbetofe.
“I was born in Kumasi and my mother in less than three weeks after my birth, returned to Kwahu Adeemmra, and I was baptized in June 1961,” Mr. Domelevo added.
But the Board says despite these responses, it will rely on documents available to it.
The post Your silence on Domelevo’s woes too loud – Vitus Azeem to Nana Addo appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana.
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