‘I’m satisfied with the way my government has dealt with corruption’ – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says he is satisfied with the way his government has been able to deal with corruption in the country.

Speaking to CNN, President Akufo-Addo stated that a lot has been done and “it is reflective in Ghana’s growing position and rankings in corruption in the world”.

He explained that his government is dealing with matters relating to corruption at the basic level.

“For instance, the [corruption] institutions that are in the country, when I came into office were very poorly resourced. You can talk all we like about corruption, but if the instruments at your disposal for dealing with it are weak and blunt, you will get no result,” he said.

When asked about the Auditor General’s forced retirement, President Akufo-Addo responded: “There’s a time for retiring which is prescribed by statute, not my making. If you are 60-years-old, you’re supposed no longer to be able to work in the public service. The Auditor-General came to 60-years-old and had to retire.

“So, the expression of ‘forcing out of office’; he was not forced out of office, he left office by the operation of law,” Akufo-Addo controversially stated, rationalizing the 167-working-day leave he forced on Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the auditor general, and the subsequent back and forth to lock him out of his office, until finally on 2 March this year, asking Domelevo to retire.

Those shenanigans were heavily criticized by the general public and civil society organizations.

But in the aforementioned interview with CNN on Monday, President Akufo-Addo defended his actions saying: “The Auditor General, like me… should be some of the first [persons] to recognize the laws in our country”.