Surcharge Domelevo for salaries paid him after turning 60 – Kumah

The immediate-past Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yao Domelevo, must be surcharged for all the salaries he took while in office despite having attained the compulsory retirement age of 60, Ejisu MP John Kumah has said.

“Nobody sacked him. He, himself, by his own handwriting, gave his date of birth and he has not denied it and by that. In fact, he should be surcharged for the extra salaries he received after his retirement”, Mr Kumah suggested on Class91.3FM’s current affairs programme ‘The Watchdog’ on Saturday, 27 March 2021.

“If it were him, he would do it”, he told show host Eugene Bawelle, adding: “Domelevo, himself, complained against people who change their date of birth when it is time for them to leave and today the same standard is being used against him and he says: ‘Hey, I’m being victimised’”.

“Let’s be fair”, he said.

President Nana Akufo-Addo recently asked Mr Domelevo to go home since, per his age, he had passed the compulsory retirement age of 60.

In a letter dated 3 March 2021, the President, through his secretary, Nana Bediatuo Asante, said: “The attention of the President of the Republic has been drawn to records and documents made available to this Office by the Audit Service, that indicate that your date of birth is 1st June 1960, and that in accordance with article 199 (1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor-General was 1 June 2020.”

Mr Domelevo resumed work after his forced 167-day leave ended on Tuesday.

On the eve of his resumption, the Board wrote to him challenging his Ghanaian nationality and age.

The Board said his own Social Security and National Insurance Trust records showed he is a Togolese and not a Ghanaian 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 in 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 1st June 1960 when you joined the scheme on 1st October 1978. The records show that you stated your tribe as Togolese and a non-Ghanaian. That your home town 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 home town 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 home town 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 1st 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 1st 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.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo directed Mr Domelevo to take his accumulated annual leave of 123 working days effective Wednesday, 1 July 2020 but later increased it to 167 following a protest letter from the A-G.

A statement released by the office of the President and signed by the Director of Communications, Mr Eugene Arhin, on Monday, 29 June 2020, said: “The President’s decision to direct Mr Domelevo to take his accumulated annual leave is based on Sections 20(1) and Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), which apply to all workers including public office holders such as the Auditor-General.”

Mr Domelevo was said to have taken only nine days of his annual leave.