Domelevo: Action of Board of Audit Service amounts to autocratic pettiness – Prempeh

Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Professor H Kwasi Prempeh has described the action of the Board of the Audit Service against the Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo as autocratic pettiness.

This comes after the board said in a three-page letter addressed to Mr. Domelevo on Tuesday, March 2, just a day before he resumes work after preceding on compulsorily leave, that he was due for retirement on June 1, 2020.

In providing details to its claim, the Audit Service Board said in a letter dated 26th February 2021 that, “Records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) completed and signed by you indicate your date of birth as 1st June 1960 when you joined the scheme on 1st October 1978.

“The records show that you stated your tribe as Togolese and a non-Ghanaian. That your home town is Agbatofe.”

“On 25th October 1992, you completed and signed a SSNIT Change of Beneficiary Nomination form, stating your nationality as a Ghanaian and your home town as Ada in the Greater Accra Region.

“The date of birth on your Ghanaian passport number A45800, issued on 28th February 1996 is 1st June 1961. That place of birth is stated as Kumasi, Ashanti Region,” the correspondence stated.

The Board said Mr. Domelevo’s reference to a Parish Priest and provision of his contact for further verification of his date of birth is not admissible.

“Observation of your responses and explanations contained in your above reference letter make your date of birth and Ghanaian nationality even more doubtful and clearly establishes that you have made false statements contrary to law.”

The Board consequently insisted that Mr. Domelevo was due for compulsory retirement on June 1, 2020, and was in fact not a Ghanaian but a Togolese.

“Records made available to the Board indicate that your date of retirement was 1st June 2020 and as far as the Audit Service is concerned you are deemed to have retired,” it noted.

Prof Prempeh commenting on a Facebook post by Dr Lloyd Amoah of the University of Ghana on this matter said “Just heard this: Dude was forced out on leave as a Ghanaian, only to return as a Togolese due for retirement. The height of autocratic pettiness.”

Dr Amoah posted that “It was such foolery that claimed that Nkrumah was Ivorian. We are back to SQUARE ONE. PAY ATTENTION.”