It seems the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has succeeded in virtually rendering the Board of the Audit Service redundant.
He has openly revealed that he has an axe to grind with the board through his ‘one man’ show at the Audit Service.
DAILY GUIDE’s sources at the Audit Service indicated that Yaw Domelevo has deliberately been avoiding board meetings.
According to them, he previously instructed one of his deputies, Blessed Baffour Atta, to act in his absence, but ordered him not to represent him on the Board.
With the absence of the Auditor General, the board cannot take any binding decision.
In the latest letter to communicate his intention to travel, which was sighted by DAILY GUIDE, Yaw Domelevo informed the Chief of Staff about his planned trip to New York, USA from November 26 to December 5, 2018, to attend the United Nations Panel of External Auditors meetings.
The Auditor-General is also said to be attending corruption conference in Denmark.
In the letter, he told the Chief of Staff that “in my absence, Mr. Blessed Baffour Atta (Deputy Auditor-General) will kindly act as the Auditor-General except that he cannot represent me at the Board.”
Yaw Domelevo, who is being accompanied by two of his deputies namely George Swanzy Winful and Roberta Appiah-Asiamah on the trip, is said to be creating a situation that would prevent the Board from meeting to take decisions on certain key issues about the audit service.
Per the Audit Service Law, Act 584, “the quorum at a meeting of the Board shall be four, including the Auditor-General or in the absence of the Auditor-General the person acting on behalf of the Auditor-General.”
DAILY GUIDE’s legal sources explained that the practical effect of the Act is that in the absence of the Auditor-General or his representative, the Board cannot be properly constituted to hold a meeting to take any binding decision.
A private citizen has filed a suit at the Supreme Court to seek interpretation of the law governing the Audit Service.
The Auditor-General, in the lawsuit, has been accused of intentionally staying away from Board meetings and using his “deliberate” absence to impugn the validity of decisions taken by the Board.
He has been at loggerheads with members of the Audit Service Board.
“Yaw Domelevo can be said to be pocketing the audit service to prove his ‘supremacy,’ thereby virtually weakening the Board,” sources told the paper.
By Melvin Tarlue
DAILY GUIDE
