Corruption is not fought alone or quietly – Domelevo warns

Daniel Yao Domelevo has said corruption is a “dangerous enemy” that cannot be dealt with by an individual.

According to the former Auditor-General, anybody who tries to fight corruption quietly will be finished in a minute.

Speaking at his Thanksgiving service at the Christ The King Catholic Church, Daniel Yao Domelevo said, “If you fight corruption alone, you won’t last. Corruption is one dangerous enemy you can’t fight alone, and you can’t fight quietly. If you fight corruption quietly, you will be finished in a minute.”

Thanking all those who helped him during his time at the Audit Service, Domelevo expressed appreciation to Civil Society Organizations focused on fighting corruption in Ghana, indicating that their support was very helpful to him while he was in office.

He said their support ensured that the fight against corruption was waged strongly.

“I must say thank you to the anti-corruption CSOs or institutions fighting corruption [in Ghana]. I am very grateful. They [CSOs] have been with me together with the press. To the press, I am very grateful to you. You have been a big support to me in all that has happened over the years.”

Daniel Yao Domelevo left his position as Auditor-General when President Akufo-Addo on March 3, directed that he retires from the office.

The Audit Service Board before his return from a compulsory 167-day accumulated leave claimed to have found some irregularities and anomalies in his SSNIT data.

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.”

However, in a press statement signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, a report from the Audit Service Board intimated that Daniel Yao Domelevo has exceeded the eligible age to remain in the workforce, for that reason, he should be retired.

“The attention of the President of the Republic has been drawn to records and documents made available to this Office by the Audit Service, that indicate that your date of birth is 1st June 1960 and that in accordance with article 199 (1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor-General was 1st June 2020.”