Vitus Azeem, Anti-corruption campaigner
Anti-Corruption Campaigner, Vitus Azeem, has said that Ghana is headed for a dictatorship system if it continues to give more powers to the President or the Executive to control independent institutions.
He made this known in an interview with Happy FM’s Don Prah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show when he said: “We have three arms of Government and if all the three arms of Government are not able to exercise their duty independently, in addition to the number of independent institutions that we have, we are gradually giving all the power to the President or the Executive and eventually we will have a dictatorship and not a democracy”.
He noted that almost all the public institutions in the country are virtually controlled by the President through appointments and that “is not the best for a country that claims to be a democratic country”.
Linking this phenomenon to the recent Auditor-General’s fiasco with the Audit Service, he believed that it was in the interest of the country to allow the Auditor-General to work independently; free from any interference.
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.
