We need an Auditor-General like Domelevo if not we're doomed - Ghana Integrity Initiative

The Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative Linda Ofori-Kwafo says Ghanaians must advocate for an Auditor-General like Daniel Domelevo.

Speaking at a press conference by a group of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) Mrs Ofori-Kwafo called on Ghanaians to show more interest in who replaces Domelevo because his attitude and boldness was key to fighting corruption in Ghana.

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She praised Mr Domelevo as the most courageous and committed person to have occupied the Auditor-General's post.

“I want us to watch the space as to who becomes the next Auditor-General. Reason being that we’ve worked with many Auditor-Generals in the past and Domelevo stands tall. We should be advocating for an Auditor-General who has the audacity like Daniel Domelevo, if not, we are doomed.

“If we are not able to get someone who will be able to take up big cases like he led, go to court and win and surcharge and disallow and then going to the extent of implementing same. Countries called him to show their Audit Service how to also go about their work. If we don’t get someone with his audacity, we are going to see so many things happening in this country,” she said.

Last year President Akufo-Addo appointed Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu to be the Acting Auditor-General.

Mr Domelevo did not leave office without drama, after several back and forth President Akufo-Addo on March 3, directed that he retires from the office.

Before then the Audit Service Board had challenged his nationality and retirement age.

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 1960 when he joined the scheme on October 1, 1978.

They also questioned Domelevo’s hometown, indicating that he had written he hailed from Agbetofe in Togo; making him a non-Ghanaian.

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 said.

But explaining the anomalies, Daniel Yao Domelevo said his grandfather was a native of Ada in the Greater Accra Region but migrated to Togo and stayed at Agbetofe.

On the issue of his date of birth, Domelevo said he noticed that 1960 was a mistake “when I checked my information in the baptismal register of the Catholic Church in Adeemmra.”