If I were Asante-Apeatu, I would've turned down IGP appointment - Domelevo

Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo has posited that if he were David Asante-Apeatu, he wouldn’t have accepted his appointment as the Inspector General of Police because government still has complete control over them.

According to him, working under the complete control and direction of government makes his position ineffective hence the reason he is unable to bring some perpetrators to book.

It has not been an easy few months for the IGP as the country has been beset by a plethora of violent incidents that have citizens worried about their general security.

The IGP, David Asante-Apeatu has come under heavy pressure and criticisms from public and some civil society groups to resign his position following violence that marred the by-election in the Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency recently.

But speaking at the Town Hall Meeting on Media and Corruption in Ghana on the theme “Assessing the performance of the media in fighting corruption in Ghana: Two years of Akufo-Addo’s administration”, the Auditor-General commended the IGP for a good job done in spite of the backlash he has received.

According to him, the IGP must be saluted because he is not autonomous and it is difficult to act professionally when working under an authority.

“In fact the day I looked at the law or the constitution, Article 200, 201, 202; this is about the IGP, I say my goodness IGP is doing very well, we should salute him. How can you say he’s working under the direction and control of the council? The IGP works under the direction and control, I say my goodness if I saw this I wouldn’t have taken my appointment. There’s no way you can give me an appointment and say I’m working under the direction and control of someone else. So they’re doing their best”.

He further indicated that although he is not under any directive or control, some people still want to exercise control over him, for which he is not allowing them to.

“Mine is Article 187, look at Article 186, that’s the government statistician the same thing. He works under the direction and control of board and so when people read that they read that for even Auditor-General. Even when the constitution says the Auditor-General in the performance of his functions under the constitution and any law in Ghana he is not under the direction and control of anyone, people still think he’s under the direction and control because we are used to the direction and control”.

Advocating the need to have good institutions, he said this anomaly can only work when the legal framework is looked at critically.

“I personally believe that we need strong institutions, not macho men to run any country and I believe that audit service is doing what we’re doing because it is a strong institution...We need good institutions; it starts with our legal framework”.