The Presidency has rejected claims that former Auditor General Daniel Domelevo was haunted out of office because of his work which targeted highly placed public officials.
Mr. Domelevo was asked to go on retirement by President Akufo-Addo on March 3, 2020 after he returned from a forced leave of 167 days.
In a lengthy statement, Secretary to the President, Nana Asante-Bediatuo, said Mr Domelevo was appointed by the former NDC administration because of his loyalty to the outgoing President at the time.
The statement further noted Mr Domelevo was not an auditor as at the time Mr Mahama was appointing him into office.
“After losing the election, it became necessary for former President Mahama to change his nomination for Auditor-General, with the sole aim of saddling the then-President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, with an Auditor General whose allegiance was to former President Mahama, instead of the nation,”.
“… It must be noted that Mr Domelevo, hitherto, was not an auditor and had not be engaged in auditing. Before his early retirement in public service in 2010, he was director of payroll at the controller and Accountant General’s department”.
attached is the letter from the Presidency
Letter to CSOs (Govt Statement on Domelevo’s Retirement)
Akufo-Addo retires Domelevo
President Akufo-Addo says documents available to him suggest that Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo has reached his retirement age.
The development comes in the wake of the standoff between the Auditor-General and the Audit Service board over his nationality and date of birth as he prepared to resume work after his compulsory leave.
“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 1st June 2020.
“Based on this information, the President is of the view that you have formally left office,” a statement from the presidency said Wednesday night.
Mr Domelevo resumed office on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, after 167 days of forced leave.
Impasse over nationality, age
The board wrote to Mr Domelevo raising concerns over his date of birth claiming he has reached retirement age.
In a recent correspondence, the 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 25th 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 28th February 1996 is 1st June 1961. That place of birth is stated as Kumasi, Ashanti Region”.
Mr Domelevo in response said: “Either my father wrongly mentioned Agbatofe in Togo as his home town to me, or I misconstrued it at the time… My mother is also a Ghanaian.
“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.”
Domelevo reacts to retirement directive
Former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo says President Akufo-Addo urged to him to accept the job after former President John Mahama appointed him after losing the 2016 polls.
Mr. Domelevo who was forced into retirement by the President on March 3,2021 has been accused of mischief by some government supporters for accepting the job from a president who had lost an election.
“I also will like to thank the President, Nana Akufo-Addo for working with me. In fact, in 2016 when I was appointed, and I was confused, as to whether I should accept or reject [it], a call came through from Dr. Matthew Opoku Premeph and after greeting him, he said hold on for the [then] President-elect, so Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo encouraged me, he said ‘go and take the job.’ That is why I am very grateful to him,” he told the gathering at his thanksgiving ceremony at the Christ the King Church in Accra.
He also noted even though his heart is heavy following the forced retirement, his spirit is free.
“My heart is heavy but my spirit is free. It is for the good of our motherland that I turned my back on the gold of the private sector to come help preserve the gold of the public sector. That was my joy, my hope, and dream of using my knowledge and conviction to serve this great country that has been turned into a pauper’s debtor by some few wicked souls”.
He added: “Mr Chairman, I don’t want to go into the technicalities relating to my forced leave, date of birth or nationality, because if there’s any truth in these claim, then the oath of integrity and allegiance to the cross I took when I assumed this position are both blasphemous. I am neither a Togolese nor a ’60 born and anybody who attempts to painstakingly prove the authenticity of these allegations is not just unscrupulous, but a demon who has sworn not sleep until the fight against corruption has been frustrated.
