There is no controversy with my birthday – Former Auditor General

The former Auditor General, Daniel Yao Demelevo, has taken a strong stance on the controversy regarding his birthdate emphasizing that he has only one legitimate date of birth.

He said this in an interview with Citi FM’s Eyewitness News which was monitored by GhanaWeb.

The date of birth of the former Auditor General, Domelevo, was one of the accusations made against him by the presidency, which ultimately led to an early retirement in 2020.

According to him, there is no controversy as far as his date of birth is concerned.

“There is no controversy at all about my birthday. My birthday is the one and only one. If pick up a forged document today or forges a document on you today or imposes a birthday on you Umaru, will you accept it as a second birthday? So as far as a am concerned I have only a birthday so there is no controversy,” he said.

Domelevo further expressed his disappointment with the actions of the board and the office of the president, claiming that they should have sought legal clarification rather than making baseless assertions.

“You cannot allege something and rule on it. The board should have been wise. The office of the president should have been wise to go to court and say, Daniel, this is your birthday instead of the other one. They’ve not challenged that. It doesn’t lie in their bosom or their mouth to tell me when I was born,” he stressed.

Background:

Ghana’s apex court, the Supreme Court, declared as unconstitutional, the directive by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in 2020, for the former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Demelevo, to proceed on forced leave.

As can be recalled, the president, in a letter dated June 29, 2020, and signed by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, the former A-G was directed to take his accumulated leave.

The statement added that “The president’s decision to direct Mr Domelevo to take his accumulated leave is based on sections 20(1) and 31 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), which apply to all workers, including public office holders such as the Auditor-General.”

But after hearing a case brought before it by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) and eight other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) who described the move as an affront to the independence of the office, the Supreme Court has ruled that the move was unconstitutional.

According to a report by citinewsroom.com, the decision by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to Daniel Yao Domelevo in 2020 to take his 169 working days of accumulated leave was null and void.

It will also be recalled that after the president’s directive, which courted a lot of public uproar and disaffection, there were several unattended appeals from the CSOs to the president.

The groups then decided to seek interpretation from the Supreme Court.



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