The Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo has returned to work after the expiration of his 167 days mandatory leave amid controversies on his retirement age being contested by the Audit Service Board.
Prior to his resumption, the Chairman of the Audit Service Board, Prof. Edward Dua Agyeman had requested Mr. Domelevo, to justify anomalies raised on his birth certificate or risk actions taken against him.
According to the Board, records available to them at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) provided by the Auditor-General disclosed that his date of birth was 1960 when he joined the scheme on October 1, 1978.
It further revealed that hometown of Mr. Domelevo is Agbetofe in Togo; making him non-Ghanaian but on October 25, 1993, some changes were made. While the date of birth changed to June 1, 1961, the hometown of the Auditor-General was now Ada in the Greater Accra Region.
Justifying the seeming discrepancies, Mr. Domelevo explained that his grandfather was a native of Ada in the Greater Accra Region but migrated to Togo and stayed at Agbetofe.
Touching on the issue of his date of birth, Mr. Domelevo said he noticed that 1960 was a mistake “when I checked my information in the baptismal register of the Catholic Church in Adeemmra”.
“I was born in Kumasi and my mother in less than three weeks after my birth, returned to Kwahu Adeemmra (with me) and I was baptized in June 1961”.
That notwithstanding, the Audit Service Board in a release on March 2, 2021 revealed the explanation given makes the “date of birth and Ghanaian nationality even more doubtful and clearly establishes that you have made false statements contrary to law”.
In spite of the rejoinders made by the Auditor General, Prof. Dua Agyeman said Mr. Domelevo will be considered a retired official whose tenure expired in June 2020. According to him, his outfit will be relying on the available records.
“As far as we know, the documents are authentic, our information is authentic, he should have retired in 2020, and therefore he is deemed to have retired”.
Meanwhile, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Center for Democratic Development, Ghana, Dr. Kojo Asante, has described as ridiculous and unfortunate, the Audit Service Board’s referral of Audit-General Daniel Yao Domelevo to President Nana Akufo-Addo for possible retirement.
According to him, it’s quite unfortunate that these developments have occurred “because the claim is that, after all, 1st June this year, he would have retired anyway”.
“I think that what has occurred is ridiculous and consistent with the kind of shenanigans we have seen from the Audit Service Board in respect of Mr. Domelevo’s tenure. We have had the accusations of mismanagement that didn’t go anywhere, and now we are even hearing he isn’t a Ghanaians.
“If there are questions to be asked, it should be whether people should be charged with causing financial loss to the state because if they knew all this while that he isn’t a Ghanaians and should have retired in June 2021, why did we send him home to go and stay there idle and paid him. Why didn’t we ask him to retire then? And only when he is due to return and then these issues are raised.”
