‘Why will the Audit Service Board violate Article 187(15)?’ – Kwaku Azar wonders

Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar has questioned the rationale behind the Audit Service Board’s hiring of an audit firm to audit the foreign travels of Daniel Yaw Domelevo, the Auditor-General.

The Auditor-General has been forced to proceed on a 167-day leave by the Akufo-Addo administration.

According to Kwaku Azar, the actions of the Audit Service Board, is a clear violation of the constitutional provision which allows the legislature to appoint an auditor to audit the accounts of the office of the Auditor-General under Article 187(15) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.

Article 187 (15) reads, “The accounts of the office of the Auditor-General shall be audited and reported upon by an auditor appointed by Parliament.”

Kwaku Azar, a Fellow in Public Law and Justice at CDD-Ghana believes that such provisions of the Constitution are supposed to be respected and upheld by the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary and all other organs of government and its agencies and even where applicable to them by all-natural and legal persons in Ghana, and shall be enforceable by the courts.

Kwaku Azar then asked some series of questions on his Facebook timeline; “why will the Audit Service Board violate Article 187(15) by appointing and paying for the services of an auditor of its choice?

Why will the audit firm become a part of the scheme to violate Article 187(15)?”

He continued: “Why will the Minister of Justice be willfully blind to this clear violation of Article 187(15)? Why will the executive, legislature, and other organs of government watch helplessly as the Audit Service Board violates Article 187(15) with perfect impunity?

“Why must we pretend that we are committed to constitutional governance when nobody takes the commands of the Constitution seriously?”

Kwaku Azar then stated that it is pointless to celebrate and commemorate Constitution Day on January 7 only to disrespect, contravene and violate its most basic commands during the rest of the year.

“We either live under the rule of law or the rule of the big man. There should be no motromojo on this,” he said.

Background

The Audit Service Board recently appointed K&A Accounting Services, a private audit firm, to audit the foreign travels of Daniel Yaw Domelevo, as well as that of other top management staff of his office.

Meanwhile, the Auditor-General has written to Parliament to challenge the decision, but the Audit Service Board has not made any attempt to halt the process.