Stop apportioning blame and apologise, you failed to do basic checks - Lawyer to Domelevo

Lawyer Gary Nimako, Counsel to Kennedy Osei Nyarko, the supposed recipient of a GETFund scholarship, has asked the Auditor-General, Mr. Daniel Yaw Domelevo to render an unqualified apology to the Deputy Agric Minister for mistakenly publishing his name as among beneficiaries of the fund.

According to Gary Nimako, indicted the Auditor-General for the shoddy work by failing to subject the list to a proper audit.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, the private legal practitioner also slammed the GETFund Secretariat, saying they should have cross-checked the list sent to the Auditor-General as it is becoming evidential that many names on the list are really not beneficiaries.

“....in view of the revelations that are coming out, they should further probe. If you are someone who has been listed as a recipient of a GETFund scholarship but indeed, you did not receive any funds, you have to bring your complaint to the GETFund. Then they would have to investigate and find out who at that time committed that offense. We need to know the documentations of the people who received the scholarship and the letter of approval for us to see; they should go further and give beyond what the Auditor-General was provided”, he said.

He further called on the GETFund Secretariat to provide copies of payment vouchers to back claims that his client is indeed a beneficiary of a scholarship.

“We have written to GETFund Secretariat asking them to provide the acceptance letter proving the scholarship was awarded to Hon. Kennedy Osei Nyarko. If he is indeed a recipient, which school did he attend with the scholarship? How much was the school fees? What time did they pay the school fees? Which school received the school fees and into what account did they pay the money?” he quizzed.

Turning his arsenal on the Auditor-General, Gary Nimako called on Mr Domelevo to stop laying blame at someone else's doorstep for neglecting its duty to further probe the report before publishing it on its website.

“But to just simply say that the report came from GETFund Secretariat and we announced it; we did not make any mistake in publishing the report, is just shifting blames, shifting the goal post that you are not responsible and that we should go to the GETFund Secretariat and demand for information because every information came from them is wrong. The question I ask the Auditor-General is that when the information came from the GETFund Secretariat, did you do your basic checks to make sure that the information you have conforms to basic standards, that is, the supporting document conforms to the information? Did you do that? If you did that, what was your finding before you put the names out there? Don’t just tell us that we should go to the GETFund Secretariat; what was your findings after your outfit received the information? I still stand by my position that the Auditor-General should come out to apologize,” he insisted.