I inherited poorly resourced anti-corruption institutions – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says he is satisfied with the fight against corruption partly because of the institutions that have been put in place to combat potential misuse of public funds.

He further disclosed that his government inherited under-resourced anti-corruption institutions from predecessor John Dramani Mahama government, which made it difficult to combat corruption at the basic level.

GhanaWeb monitored comments he made in an interview with US news outlet, CNN, discussing a range of issues from corruption to illegal mining and the fight against COVID-19.

On corruption, he said: “We are dealing with these matters at the basic level, because the anti-corruption institutions that are there, when I came into office were very poorly resourced.

“You can talk all you like about corruption … and make all the wonderful statements but if the instruments at your disposal for dealing with it are weak and blunt, you would get no result,” he added.

He also explained the circumstances under which former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo left office earlier this year emphasizing the fact that compulsory retirement was the reason behind his exit, a legal and statutory measure that the president had to uphold.

Akufo-Addo is on record to have said that he had given Domelevo all the necessary support that he needed when he came into office in 2017 despite the then Auditor-General being an appointee that he ‘inherited’ from the Mahama administration.

In a 21-paged open letter issued on Friday, March 19, 2021, in response to issues raised by the anti-graft CSOs, the President said he extended the necessary support, encouragement and resources to Mr Domelevo during his tenure as the Auditor-General and demonstrated his commitment at all material times to work with him (Domelevo) even though he was not the authority that initially appointed him (Domelevo).

The statement said despite Mr Domelevo being appointed on the eve of the exit from office of former President John Mahama with the sole aim of saddling President Akufo-Addo with an Auditor-General “whose allegiance was to former President Mahama, instead of the nation”, President Akufo-Addo demonstrated his willingness to work with and did work with Mr Domelevo during his tenure as the Auditor-General of the country.”