Anti-Corruption Campaigner hints of how ‘accumulated leave’ precedent can affect the EC

Edem Senanu, an Anti-Corruption Campaigner, has hinted that the recent order for the Auditor-General to proceed on an accumulated leave is a dangerous precedent that has been set for future Presidents and their dealings with independent institutions in the country.

President Nana Akufo-Addo, in June last year, directed the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, to proceed on his accumulated annual leave of 123 working days taking effect from Wednesday, July 1, 2020. The Office of the President extended the initial leave by 44 days after Mr. Domelevo’s letter to President Akufo-Addo, urging him to reconsider his directive to proceed on his accumulated leave.

Speaking on how this occurrence can affect future events, Edem Senanu told Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show: “This is the most dangerous precedent that could ever have been set in the history of the fourth dispensation especially because what it means is that some future Presidents could instruct our Electoral Commissioner at a time of election to go on accumulated leave. We have been talking about this and people are not taking us seriously .

The checks and balances that the spirt and letter of our constitution have put in place are to ensure that these institutions that are to hold the Executive in check cannot themselves as it were be instructed by the Executive. So, what we have seen undermines the very foundation of the legal arrangements that we have in place”.

Edem made known that as dissatisfied as they are with the President’s leave directive, some Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) are in court “asking for an interpretation of the action of asking the Auditor-General to proceed on leave”. He added that these CSOs are in court “because we look at the future and we look at the generations to come and we say that if we don’t take this stand today, we would have allowed a travesty that can destroy the fabric of our democracy”.

The Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo resumed work on Wednesday, March 3, following a directive from the Presidency in July 2020 to take his accumulated leave.

A day to Mr. Domelevo’s return to work, however, the Audit Service Board challenged the nationality and retirement age of the Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo as it states that Mr. Domelevo is a Togolese and was born in 1960 hence was due for retirement on 1st June 2020.

Subsequent to the challenge by the audit service, President Akufo-Addo directed the Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo to proceed on retirement.