Legal justification for Domelevo’s forced leave flawed – Linda Ofori-Kwafo

Executive Director of GII, Linda Ofori-Kwafo, said Nana Akufo-Addo’s advisors may be doing a poor job on the proceed-on-leave order to Daniel Domelevo.

“We think (the Presidency’s arguments) are all flawed. I won’t say it any lightly. We are not all-knowing but from the reading of the Constitution and also the law we think the argument that they made are not so strong in order to allow such a head of the audit service in Ghana, who is doing so well, to go on leave for 167 days. What kind of resting is he going to take? Why? Is he sick?” she stated.

Linda Ofori-Kwafo was speaking on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, at a press conference organised by over 400 Civil Society Organisations who have joined forces to compel the President to rescind the action against Daniel Domelevo.

Mr Domelevo has been compelled by a letter from the Presidency to take his accumulated 167 days leave, spanning some three years of continuous service.

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.



But speaking at the press conference where the #Bringbackdomelevo campaign was launched, GII Executive Director said to the best of her knowledge, there is no private sector institution that will ask the CEO to go on leave for that long.

“And if (the Presidency) thinks that it is applying the law fairly, then let us do a small audit and see how many heads of these institutions in this country, independent state institutions, have accumulated leave,” she proposed, suggesting that the law has been unfairly applied against Mr Domelevo.

Mr Domelevo had been vigorously pursuing a case against Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, before the sudden directive that forced him to take the over 160 days’ leave.

Meanwhile, the man who has been asked to act in the capacity of Mr Domelevo while he is on leave, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, recently cleared the details of a transaction that Mr Domelevo had raised issues with.

Mr Asiedu stated in a letter to Yaw Osafo-Maafo that he was satisfied with the documents relating to the $1 million Kroll and Associates Limited deal that Mr Domelevo had been pursuing.

Mr Domelevo had stated after an audit that there was no evidence of work done in that deal.