A Ghanaian Professor, Stephen Kweku Asare has sued the Attorney-General in a writ seeking to set aside the 167 accumulated leave days of the Auditor General, which took effect on July 1.
A letter from the Office of the President on Monday, 29 June, 2020, ordered the Auditor-General to “proceed on leave.” Initially, the Presidency asked the Auditor-General to proceed on a 123 days leave starting July 1, 2020. However, after a public reply by the Auditor-General, the Presidency increased the days to 167.
Prof Kweku-Asare wants the Supreme Court to rule that the President’s directive is inconsistent or is in contravention with the letter and spirit of article 187(7)(a) of the 1992 Constitution.
The acting Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah and the office of the Auditor-General have been named as defendants.
In the writ, the Prof write,
“Even though disguised as a directive to take accumulated annual leave of 167 days, the directive is actually a suspension of the Auditor General who is being asked to pay for the suspension by a forced debit to his accrued vacation account.”
Before taking the matter to court, Prof Stephen Kweku Asare who is a D&D Fellow in Public Law and Justice at CDD-Ghana had stated that the Auditor General cannot be forced to either take or forfeit his leave.
“The law is abundantly clear that the AG’s right to leave of absence cannot be varied to his disadvantage. The reason for the law is to protect his independence.”
Professor Kweku Asare
In the thinking of Prof Kweku Asare,
“there must be a compelling reason to force the AG to take his leave. His leave conditions must be determined by the more specific Audit Service Act not the general Labour Act.”
He further stated that,
considering the fact that certain actions of the Auditor General seem to be clashing with the Executive, “any attempts to remove the AG will offend separation of powers, constitutionalism and the growing of our institutions.”
A day after the President’s directive, it became apparent that the Audit Service Board had instigated the order for the A-G to proceed on leave.
The Board Chairman of the Audit Service, Prof Duah Agyeman who faced a similar situation during the administration of the Late Prof Mills was cited in a statement indicating that, the Board had no choice but to demand for the decision.
This is because, according to him, several attempts by the board to get the Auditor-General to go on his leave since his appointment into office in 2016 had proven futile.
“What happened in this situation is that we had discussed leave schedules for all staff, and when it came to the Auditor General we asked him when is he ready to go on leave.
“He said we cannot ask him to go on leave because we did not appoint him, so anytime we told him to go on leave he will say he will not go because we did not appoint him so now it is the appointing authority who has asked him to go.”
Pressure Group, OccupyGhana has indicated that it doesn’t understand the merit of President Akufo-Addo’s decision to order the Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo to take his accumulated leave.
In a statement on Friday, the group pointed out that it is highly perturbed about the events preceding and following the President’s decision to direct the Auditor-General to proceed on “accumulated leave.”
According to the group, they
“find it difficult reconciling that directive with the constitutional injunction under which in the performance of his functions, which necessarily includes the mundane matter of whether, when and how he takes his leave, the Auditor-General is insulated from the ‘direction and control of any person or authority.’
“While it may be best industrial, governance and management practice for every worker, including the Auditor-General, to take annual leave, we think the constitutional insulation of that office is clear and leaves no room for any penumbra within which the presidential directive may operate.
“Even if there was, which we dispute, the circumstances of this matter should have given the Executive a great opportunity for exercising restraint of power and the development of the constitutional check and balances inherent in the creation and protection of independent constitutional bodies.
“Ours is still a nascent democracy that requires all of us to assist in upholding the independence of constitutionally protected bodies such as the Auditor-General, the Electoral Commission, CHRAJ and the Judiciary. Ghana would be the ultimate loser if presidential power is deployed to micromanage any of these independent constitutional bodies, contrary to the express terms of the Constitution.”
On 7th July, 2020, close to 500 Civil Society Groups (CSOs) across the country gathered to deliver a press statement on the issue. “…sadness, disappointment and extreme concern,” were the emotions the CSOs expressed about the President’s decision.
