Domelevo forced to go on accumulated leave
Audit Board challenges Daniel Yao Domelevo on his hometown
Last year today, the then Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, was asked by the president to go on compulsory retirement after months of embattlements between them.
Even more interesting was that on that day (March 3, 2021), the former outspoken Auditor-General had just returned from an accumulated leave which had also been forcefully sanctioned for him by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
All of this was despite claims by Domelevo that he was yet to attain the retirement age of 60 years.
In a letter signed by Nana Bediatuo Asante, the Executive Secretary to the President, on Wednesday, March 3, 2021, and addressed to Daniel Yao Domelevo, the president said this was on account of documents available to him that showed the embattled A-G was at his retirement age.
“The attention of the President of the Republic has been drawn to records and documents made available to the Office by the Audit Service, that indicate that your date of birth is 1 June 1960 and that in accordance with article 199(1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor General was 1 June 2020.
"Based on this information, the President is of the view that you have formally left office. Mr Johnson Akuamoa-Asiedu will continue to act as Auditor-General until the President appoints a substantive Auditor General.
"The president thanks you for your service to the nation and wishes you the very best in your future endeavours,” the statement read in part.
But that was not the first of such letters from the Office of the President to the former A-G.
Before this, Daniel Yao Domelevo had became a subject of many news discussions after a series of correspondence between himself and the Audit Service Board came to the fore.
The Board alleged that records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) provided by the Auditor-General indicated that his date of birth was 1960 when he joined the scheme on October 1, 1978.
Again, the Board insisted that the hometown of Mr. Domelevo is Agbetofe in Togo, thereby making him non-Ghanaian, even though on October 25, 1993, Domelevo had changed those records.
While the date of birth changed to June 1, 1961, the hometown of the Auditor-General was now Ada in the Greater Accra Region, the Board claimed in a three-page letter addressed to Mr. Domelevo on Tuesday, March 2, just a day before he was to resume work from a forced 167-day leave.
Daniel Yao Domelevo duly informed the board that the two allegations were false and offered explanations.
The Board replied, indicating that “observation of your responses and explanations contained in your above reference letter make your date of birth and Ghanaian nationality even more doubtful and clearly establishes that you have made false statements contrary to law.”
The Board consequently insisted that Mr. Domelevo was due for compulsory retirement on June 1, 2020, and was not Ghanaian but Togolese.
“Records made available to the Board indicate that your date of retirement was 1 June 2020 and as far as the Audit Service is concerned you are deemed to have retired,” it noted.