Let’s resist ‘shameful’, ‘malicious’ Togolese tagging of Domelevo – Asare

An attempt by the Audit Service Board to oust Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo on grounds of falsifying his date of birth and being a Togolese is “shameful” and must be resisted, Professor Stephen Kweku Asare, a D&D Fellow in Public Law and Justice at CDD-Ghana has said.

According to the KPMG Professor in accounting at the Fisher School of Accounting, “the Board has gone rogue and must be dissolved immediately”.

The Audit Service Board recently wrote to Mr Domelevo challenging his Ghanaian nationality and age.

The Board said Mr Domelevo’s own Social Security and National Insurance Trust records show he is a Togolese and also due for retirement.

The Board in a series of correspondence with Mr Domelevo said he was born in 1960 per his own records and, thus, should have gone on retirement mid-2020.

In a letter dated 26 February 2021, the Audit Service Board said: “Records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) completed and signed by you indicate your date of birth as 1 June 1960 when you joined the scheme on 1 October 1978. The records show that you stated your tribe as Togolese and a non-Ghanaian. That your hometown is Agbatofe.”

“On 25 October 1992, you completed and signed a SSNIT Change of Beneficiary Nomination form, stating your nationality as a Ghanaian and your hometown as Ada in the Greater Accra Region. The date of birth on your Ghanaian passport number A45800, issued on 28 February 1996 is 1 June 1961. That place of birth is stated as Kumasi, Ashanti Region,” the letter said.

In his reply, Mr Domelevo explained that his grandfather, Augustine Domelevo, was a native of Ada in the Greater Accra Region but migrated to Togo and stayed at Agbatofe.

“Either my father wrongly mentioned Agbatofe in Togo as his hometown to me, or I misconstrued it at the time,” Mr Domelevo explained, adding: “My mother is also a Ghanaian.”

Concerning his date of birth, Mr Domelevo said he noticed that the 1960 date of birth was a mistake when “I checked my information in the baptismal register of the Catholic Church in Adeemmra.”

“The register has Yaw as part of my name and also provides my date of birth as 1 June 1961 – this corresponds with Thursday or Yaw – the day of the week on which I was born.”

The Audit Service Board, however, said: “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.”

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

“By a copy of this letter, the Board is informing the President, who is your appointing authority, to take necessary action. Additionally, the Board is making available to the President all the relevant documents at our disposal.”

Mr Domelevo’s 167-day forced leave ended on Tuesday, 2 March 2021 and was, therefore, expected to resume work today, Wednesday, 3 March 2021.

However, the Board insists he is deemed retired per his date of birth records.

Solidarising with Mr Domelevo, Prof Asare, who is better known in Ghana as a public intellectual and scholar-activist whose contributions and activism, including as plaintiff in a number of precedent-setting cases at the Supreme Court of Ghana, are helping to push the frontiers of governance and the rule of law forward, particularly in the area of constitutional law and practice, said in a Facebook post: “I stand with Daniel Yaw Domelevo as the only bona fide Auditor-General. I commend him for issuing 112 surcharge certificates that returned Ghc 67.3 million back to government coffers. I also commend him for rejecting about 51% of the Ghc 11.3 billion of the MDA’s commitments on grounds that they are invalid or fraudulent.”

“Merely for doing his job and fighting corruption, he has been subjected to all manner of vilification and indignity. Today, the Board of the Audit Service, which unlawfully audited him and found nothing wrong during his tenure, has shamefully and maliciously accused him of not being a Ghanaian and falsifying his DOB.”

“This notwithstanding that his birth certificate and passport put the matter to rest. Since when has the Board been charged with the responsibility of auditing the citizenship and age of the Auditor-General?” he wondered.

In his view, “Parliament has been too passive in this matter, even though the Auditor-General is accountable to it. Parliament can and must do more!” adding: “The Judicial Service, rather than gagging the media, should be auditing its processes to figure out why the apex court has not been able to timely decide the constitutionality of the President’s directive to the Auditor-General to take an involuntary leave.”

“We must come together to reject this shameful and invidious attempt by the Board to paint the Auditor-General as a non-citizen. Professor Agyeman Dua and his Board have no mandate or expertise to determine who is and who is not a citizen. We are killing the Constitution softly with our actions and inactions. Those charged with its enforcement must wake up,” he observed.