Akufo-Addo has no authority to remove or punish Auditor-General – Kofi Bentil

Kofi Bentil, Senior Vice President and Policy Analyst of IMANI Africa, has indicated that President Akufo-Addo would not have been able to remove or punish the Auditor-General had the latter refused to take the “forced” leave.

“He has no such authority,” Bentil wrote on his Facebook Timeline. “Let me put it this way, if the Auditor-General had refused to take the forced leave, the president wouldn’t be able to remove or punish him!!! He has no such authority.”

President Akufo-Addo directed Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the Auditor-General, to take his “accumulated 123 working days leave” starting July 1, 2020.

Domelevo on July 3, 2020, in a letter to the Office of the President, indicated that the president’s directive flawed the tenets of the laws of Ghana because the directive was made in bad faith because the results of his work were ‘embarrassing government’.

But Nana Bediatuo Asante, Secretary to the President, replied that Mr Domelevo was ignorant when it came to the labour laws of the country and would, therefore, be forgiven for such ignorance.

“The President has at all times acted based on sound legal principles, the rule of law and good governance practices and the good people of Ghana cannot be misled by your lack of understanding of the position of the law, for which you may be forgiven since you are not a lawyer," Bediatuo Asante wrote in his 3rd July 2020 reply.

Nana Bediatuo Asante’s four-page letter cited Section 31 of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) and averred that Mr. Domelevo could not forgo his annual leave and any agreement to relinquish his entitlement to annual leave or ‘to forgo the leave is void’.

He further wrote: “Annual leave is mandatory and that one of the purposes of Section 31 is to prevent the worker from converting his accumulated annual leave to cash to the detriment of his health and wellbeing. Thus, your assertion that you may waive your entitlement to annual leave is unlawful and misconceived”.

Bediatuo Asante’s reply further indicated that the A-G’s letter was ‘unfortunate’ and had a ‘political undertone’.

He devoted paragraphs to explain the rationale behind the President’s directive including this:

“The assertion that the decision for you to take your accumulated annual leave was not taken in good faith is also unfortunate and without any foundation. The Office of the President did not know that as part of your duties is to keep a record of appointees of the President who have not taken their annual leave since 2017, such that you can make the false claim of selectivity. You can be assured that the decision for you to take your accumulated annual leave was not taken in bad faith. Rather, your own publicization of your deteriorated relationship with your Board which notified you severally of not taking your annual leave, the President was the only person vested with the constitutional power to direct you to proceed on your accumulated annual leave".

Read Kofi's full post below.