Making former CEOs board chairs of institutions breeds tension – Auditor-General

Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo, has criticized the practice of appointing former heads of state institutions to occupy board chairmanship positions.

According to him, the practice festers tension and makes it easier for the current leadership to be undermined.

His comments come at a time when there is an impasse between him and the Board of his office, a situation that is currently been investigated by a committee set up by the president.

But speaking at the Baah Wiredu Memorial Lectures, Mr Domelovo bemoaned the emergence of such a trend in the public service.

“The practice of bringing back former public servants to their old positions or bringing former Chief executives as Board members leave much to be desired because clearly there will be conflict. Since I came to office, I have removed more than 200 people from office last year and this year. If they bring you back years later as a board member or board chairman, [you] can easily undermine who is there and so we have to take a second look at this. And some of the board members even if they are appointed, they think it’s their second coming of Christ; they will not be leaving.” He retorted

Mr. Domelevo further expressed worry over the instance whereby some heads of state institutions act as though they are above the law or there are no laws guiding their activities as boards of directors.

“It is really disturbing. We find board members overriding laws. Public Servants in Ghana from my point of view are governed by laws and therefore the universal principles of corporate governance cannot override the laws of Ghana.”