Auditor-General Domelevo resumes from accumulated leave today

The Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo is set to resume work today, March 3, 2021 following a directive from the Presidency in July 2020 to take his accumulated leave.

Mr Domelevo who clarified the date after various news reports that the 167-days leave he started on July 1 had expired, said although it ends on March 2, he will report on 3rd.

Earlier, the Office of the President had extended the initial leave by 44 days after Mr Domelevo’s letter to President Akufo-Addo, urging him to reconsider his directive to proceed on his accumulated leave.

Among other things, the Auditor-General had claimed that the directive was a breach of the labour law and was unconstitutional.

Mr. Domelevo explained that based on the labour law and recent practice, “no worker is deemed to have accumulated any leave on account of having failed, omitted, neglected or even refused to enjoy their right to annual leave, which the law guarantees for their benefit, not the employer.”

But a letter dated Friday, July 3, 2020, and signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, said although the Presidency is yet to be formally served with a copy of the letter by the Auditor-General, it has taken due notice of the content which has been widely spread in the media and on social media.

It has, therefore, decided to increase the accumulated annual leave of the Auditor-General from the initial 123 to 167 working days to include his period of leave for the year 2020 other than the earlier directive which only calculated the accumulated leave days from 2017 to 2019.

Many Ghanaians including some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have since attributed the ‘forced’ leave to the $1 million surcharge slapped on former Senior Minister, Osarfo Marfo by the Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo.