Daniel Domelevo, Dua Agyeman trade blows

The impasse between the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo and the Audit Service Board has taken a new twist, as it has emerged that both sides have written separate petitions to the President calling for intervention.

In both petitions, which have been sighted by DAILY GUIDE, they are making counter allegations against each other, a clear indication that all is not well at the Audit Service.

Mr Domelevo, who is running the Audit Service more or less in the media, has taken cover under Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), claiming that he is being hounded out of office by the board.

He prefers not to report to any board, challenging the constitutionality of the governing board by calling for its scrapping in a public lecture he delivered last week.

He questioned the president’s authority in appointing a former Auditor General as chairman of the Audit Service Board.

Auditor General’ Petition

The Auditor-General, in a petition dated July 27, 2018, requested the President to intervene in the “unlawful interference” by the Board Chairman, Prof. Edward Dua Agyeman, who he (Auditor-General) has accused of manipulating the procurement processes, among others.

Mr. Domelevo also accused Prof. Dua Agyeman and his ‘allies’ of clothing themselves with powers to direct and control him unconstitutionally, contrary to Article 187 (7) (a) of the 1992 Constitution.

The Auditor-General, in the petition, also accused Prof. Dua Agyeman of “manipulating the procurement process, attempting to commission an audit and interfering with audit process.”

Mr. Domelevo also accused the Board Chairman of holding a meeting with another Deputy Auditor-General, Blessed Baffuor-Atta and others, to discuss the audit of MMDAs liabilities without his knowledge.

Other allegations levelled against Prof. Dua Agyeman by the Auditor General are that the Board Chairman instructed another Deputy Auditor-General, Roberta Assiamah-Appiah to invite an audit team conducting special audit at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to a meeting while he was away in Kigali, Rwanda.

Board’s Petition

But the Audit Service Board, in a counter petition to the President, accused Mr. Domelevo of ignoring the inputs of the governing board of the Audit Service by taking unilateral decisions in contravention of the Audit regulations.

The petition, which was signed by all members of the Audit Service Board, accused Daniel Yaw Domelevo of running a one-man-show at the Audit Service, as he had promised to ignore any decision of the board, existing or new which he claims are contrary to the Constitution.

It said, “Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo has consistently arrogated to himself the power to interpret the Constitution to suit his purposes. He is stretching this independence to mean he is not answerable to the Governing Board, to the extent that he stated in a correspondence to the Board dated 29th May, 2018: ‘Going forward, I will ignore any decision of the Board (existing or new) that is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution…”

The petition alleged that the Auditor-General sidelined the board and is said to be at loggerheads with the board chairman and other members of the board and board sub-committees who he feels are not submissive to his directives.

The impasse between the board and Mr. Domelevo, according to the petition, is creating a very uncooperative and hostile environment in the boardroom and consequently, the administration of the Audit Service.

The board is said to have on May 29, 2018 decided to report his uncooperative conduct to the President but the board, including the Auditor-General himself, came to a compromise on July 25, 2018 to hold a reconciliation meeting to address the progressively deteriorating relations.

However, by an email dated July 28, 2018, the Auditor-General, without the approval of the board, instructed the board secretary to cancel the meeting.

Apart from the disagreements between the Auditor-General and the board, the petition accused Mr. Domelevo of hostile attitude, lack of accountability and transparency, refusal to audit the NHIA, non-submission of the Audit Service for 2016 and 2017 to the Board and procurement of vehicles for the Audit Service without following due process.



Auditor-General’s Report

Mr. Domelevo is also being accused of publishing the Auditor-General’s report without giving copies to the board, which is in breach of the Audit Service Regulations.

In some instances, the board members only get to know about the report after the Auditor-General had relayed the report through the press.

One of such instances, according to the petition, was on July 12, 2018 when a section of the media carried stories on the latest Auditor-General’s report to Parliament which were published and submitted to Parliament without copies given to the board as required by law.

Procurements

Mr. Domelevo is also said to have contravened the Public Procurement Act by making purchases that are well above the entity’s approval limits.

According to the petition, the Auditor-General, without the knowledge of the board and without following due process, disbursed GH?6,001,118.600 of the Audit Service’s 2017 budgetary allocation to procure 27 cars for the Service, including a Toyota Land Cruiser V8 for himself.

Mr. Domelevo is also accused of purchasing four medium cross-country vehicles amounting to GH?1,028,341.20 from funds from USAID without the knowledge of the board.

The petition said all these vehicle procurements were made without the authority and knowledge of the board as required by Regulations 6 and 24 of the Audit Service Regulations, 2011 (C.I. 70).



NHIA Audit

Among the series of allegations against the Auditor-General is that he had failed to respond to concerns about auditing the accounts of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), which was brought to the attention of the Complaints Unit of the Audit Service by the Chief Executive Officer of NHIA.

His reason for not responding to the complaint, according to the petition, is that he disagreed with the board chairman for bringing the complaint to the attention of the board as that meant interfering with an audit process or supervising audits.

The petition indicated that the board members are calling for action from the President to save the Audit Service from self-implosion.

Presidential Committee

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that the President Akufo-Addo has constituted a committee to look into the allegations and counter allegations by Mr. Domelevo and the Audit Service Board.

This paper also understands that the possible breaches in the Procurement Act by the Audit Service in purchasing the vehicles which caused the taxpayer over GH¢7.6 million has been brought to the attention of the PPA.