It will be constitutional for Mahama to maintain the current Auditor General – Domelevo

Former Auditor General Daniel Domelovo believes the present Auditor General should be kept by a new administration that is not affiliated with the ruling New Patriotic Party.

In response to a question concerning whether he would support or propose that the current Auditor General be maintained if a new government or former President John Dramani Mahama won the election, he said yes.

He responded by saying, “Why not? That is the position of the law, and we must be law-abiding.”

Speaking to Dr. Ren in an exclusive interview on Rainbow Radio 92.4 FM, United Kingdom, the former Auditor General indicated that he has complained severely about how the presidency is always at the forefront of committing illegality, and that was why he was happy that some CSOs went to court after he was removed from office or asked to proceed on compulsory leave.

According to him, he was elated that the Supreme Court described his removal as unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court of Ghana declared President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s directive to former Auditor General Daniel Domelovo to proceed on 169 working days of accumulated leave as unconstitutional.

The court ruled that the plea of the Centre for Democratic Development and eight other Civil Society Organizations, that had challenged the directive by the president was an affront to the independence of the office.

The suit, filed in October 2020, was necessitated by the president’s failure to rescind the directive despite several appeals.

Mr. Domelevo explained that the Constitution, as stated in Article 187, has provided the processes through which an Auditor General can be removed from office, and just like judges of the apex court, their removal from office ought to follow a procedure.

“If that method is followed, I would have no problem… But I will wish and pray that we don’t appoint people to office or remove them just because they are not singing our praises or doing things to favour us.”

My appointment with Mahama was not wrong

Meanwhile, when asked whether his appointment by former President John Mahama was not wrong considering the timing, he disagreed.

He told the host that the appointment by Mr. Mahama was within his mandate and constitutional.

“I don’t think it was wrong at all. It was within the mandate of the president. He (Mahama) was still president when he appointed me…But put the law aside, you must look at good practices and corporate governance, which are not necessarily laws. That was why I requested if the incoming government was comfortable with me.”

He claimed that President Akufo-Addo personally called him to tell him that he was comfortable with him and that he should not refuse the job.

He stated that numerous appointments before him caused a commotion in the country, but his appointment caused less noise at the time he was appointed.