Scrap audit service board – Domelevo

Former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo has advised the authorities to scrap the Audit Service Board.

He opined that the independence of the Auditor-General is not fully guaranteed if the power to recruit personnel is vested in the Audit Service Board.

He made the call while speaking at the 2024 Domelevo Accountability Lectures in Accra last week. He said, “My personal considered opinion, given what I have experienced, is that the board is not necessary for an independent institution.

“Read the constitution, you will see that the Auditor-General in the performance of his function is not under the direction and control of any other person. Now, the same Constitution constitutes a board and makes him a member of the board and says that it is the board that appoints staff. If they give you the staff, they can control you, they will give you chaff, hence the wrangling you heard about.

“In other jurisdictions, like Sierra Leone, they copied our law, their audit service act is almost word for word with that of Ghana, except that when they reached the board, they made it an advisory board to the Auditor-General and the Auditor-General is the chair.”