The former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has weighed into conversations about the separation of the Attorney General’s office from the Ministry for Justice to aid in the fight against corruption in the country.
Domelevo, in an interview on TV3’s Hot Issues, pointed out that he had difficulties collaborating with the office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice in enforcing surcharges occasioned by the Auditor-General’s office.
“Many at times people have been calling for separating the Attorney General from the Ministry of Justice; I’m in for it because that will have solved that conflict where you are part of the team which is taking the decisions and you are the one who has to be prosecuting at the same time,” said Domelevo.
He further stated that during his tenure, he copied the AG’s office on over 100 surcharge letters, of which he never received a response from the AG’s office.
“I issued more than 100 certificates and none of them went without copying him because, before designing the system, we looked at how do we tackle it, who the stakeholders were, and who are the people who must be informed, so my legal team advised that since the last Supreme Court consequential order was to the Attorney General that he should take action against people who have been surcharged or held responsible by the Auditor-General,” he stated.
More from Domelevo on corruption fight
- ‘We are robbing people and using it this way. I can’t get it” – Domelevo on Agyapa Royalties deal
- ‘Creating more institutions doesn’t win corruption fight’ – Domelevo on OSP
“So we thought it was necessary to bring the Attorney General up to speed on what we are doing,” he added.
This means that there are over 100 surcharges that might not have been executed for the latter. The surcharges included expenditures disallowed as well as refunds of monies expended illegally.
According to him, the Attorney General has the sole mandate to go to court to ensure there is enforcement of the disallowance of expenditures and refunds done by the Auditor-General.