The Coalition of Civil Society groups in Ghana has described the manner in which President Akufo-Addo asked the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo to proceed on leave as "regrettable and inconsistent with both the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution".
The group held the view that not only does the president's action gravely affects the fight against corruption, but it also "weakens our quest for good democratic governance grounded in the principle of checks and balances, rule of law and the pursuit of public accountability".
Go On Leave!
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday, June 29, 2020, asked Mr. Daniel Yaw Domelevo to take his accumulated annual leave of 123 days starting Wednesday, July 1, 2020.
But the Office of the President later added 44 more working days to the 132 annual leave days after Mr. Domelevo, in a letter to the Presidency, urged Akufo-Addo to reconsider the directive, claiming that it breaches the labour law and is unconstitutional.
Mr. Domelevo had made use of nine out of his 132 annual leave days since assuming office in December 2016.
The directive which explained that the President's decision was based on sections 20 (1) and 31 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651), asked Mr Domelevo to hand over to the Deputy Auditor-General, Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, all matters relating to his office until his return from leave.
Embarrassing The Gov't?
Following the directive that Mr. Domelevo is to hand over his responsibilities to his Deputy, the Auditor-General said he had observed that his work was “embarrassing the government” based on the posturing of some ministers and correspondence he had had with the Chairman of the Audit Service Board who he noted works at the Office of the Senior Minister.
He also noted that several appointees of the President have not taken their annual leave since 2017.
“The directive, therefore, that I proceed on leave, oblivious of the other workers similarly circumstanced, gives the impression that the decision is not taken in good faith,” he added.
Criticisms
Although the action has been justified by the Presidency as appropriate and grounded in the law governing Public Service Commission, the decision has been criticised by some legal experts.
Critics say the proceed-on-leave directive is inappropriate because the nature of the law that creates the Auditor General's office is similar to those that created the office of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) Commissioner and the Chief Justice, and hence must not be under the control of the Executive.
CSOs Begin #BringBackDomelevo
But at a press conference held on Tuesday afternoon, the group which claims to represent close to 500 CSO members across the country, dismissed claims that the Auditor-General has been biased in his work. Questioning the properness of the directive, the group asked President Akufo-Addo to "reconsider", whiles launching a "campaign to #BringBackDomelevo beginning today."
"The action gravely weakens the President’s fight against corruption and his standing in the eyes of the international community as someone committed to public accountability. We should not forget that it was the President and the NPP government that set up an Office of the Special Prosecutor with a carefully designed legal framework to ensure that Mr. Martin Amidu was not only formally independent but substantively independent.
"We believe our President listens and when he re-assesses the case we have made, he will reconsider. In this regard, we are calling on all well-meaning Ghanaians to join us in our campaign to #BringBackDomelevo beginning today.
"Second, as result of the gravity of the constitutional issues raised by this action, we have to at some point apply to the Supreme Court for interpretation of the President’s powers in respect of’ independent governance institutions," portions of the statement read.
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