Auditor-General runs to President

Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, has petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, over alleged interference by Board Chairman, Prof Edward Dua Agyeman.

The petition, dated July 27, 2018 requested the President to intervene in the “unlawful interferences” by the Board Chairman of the Ghana Audit Service whom the Auditor-General accusing of manipulating the procurement processes among others.

Mr Domelevo’s petition also accused the chairman and his allies of clothing themselves with powers to direct and control him unconstitutionally. He vowed he would  “not obey any unlawful instructions from the Board, including existing and new decisions that are inconsistent with the Constitution…”

The 10-point letter, levelled several allegations against Prof Dua Agyeman including “manipulating the procurement process”, “attempting to commission an audit”, “interfering with audit process” and “unlawful circulation of audit circulations.”

It cited an instance when he wrote to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for approval to do restricted tendering in accordance with Section 38 of the Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

He alleged, however, that the Board Chair instructed two of his subordinates- Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu; Deputy Auditor-General and Ebenezer Aglomasa, a Procurement Officer “to replace the approved firms with his choice” after approval was obtained from the PPA.   “This was done without my knowledge and without going back to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) to change the list originally approved,” the letter stated and claimed that: “The Chairman admitted to the offense with the excuse that the law did not exist during his tenure of office as Auditor-General.

The Auditor-General also accused Prof. Dua Agyeman of holding a meeting with another Deputy Auditor-General, Blessed Baffuor-Atta and others, “to discuss the audit of MMDAs liabilities without my knowledge”.

“The DAG showed me a letter inviting the Chairman in his capacity as the Chairman of the Audit Service Board to that meeting.”

According to Mr Domelevo, when he questioned the Chairman where his mandate to audit in the Public Service and the reasons for calling the DAG to that meeting without his knowledge emanated from, the response he had was that: “he thought the audit in question was below my level as the Auditor-General”.

In another instance, the Auditor-General said the Board Chair, who served as Auditor-General between 2001 and 2009 in the administration of President John Agyekum Kufuor, instructed another Deputy Auditor-General, Mrs Roberta Asiamah-Appiah to invite an audit team conducting special audit at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to a meeting while he was away in Kigali, Rwanda.

He said he sent a mail to the Board Chair to confirm the information he received from the DAG regarding this meeting.

Mr Domelevo quoted Prof. Dua Agyeman as stating in his reply that “…the Chief Executive of NHIA came to him [Chairman] with audit observations that were of concern to the management of the NHIA and hence his directive to meet with the audit team.”