Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo has taken on the board chairman of the Audit Service Board, questioning his locus in sanctioning an audit into foreign travels of top management.
“I also wonder why you still hold yourself as the Board Chairman after the expiration of the Board’s term of office on 11th October 2020 contrary to Section 5 of the Audit Service Act 2000(Act 584),” Mr Domelevo stated in a reply to Professor Dua Agyemang.
“Until you provide evidence of your reappointment in accordance with article 189(1) and section 5(1) of Act 584, I deem you to be acting ultra vires and will treat you as such.”
The long-standing tension between the Auditor-General and the board chairman was rekindled after Prof Agyemang wrote to Mr Domelevo for him to retire an imprest on a 2018 voyage to London and The Hague.
According to the letter, the Auditor-General failed to account for the $4,020 released to him for the travels.
The auditing was carried out on behalf of the Board by K and A Accounting Services.
But taking exception to the letter, Mr Domelevo said the question as to whether the audit is legal or not is before the Supreme Court.
He, therefore, described the request by the board chair as “clearly contemptuous of the Court”.
“Read sections 2(3) and 7 of the Public Financial Management Act 2016 and you will realise that the mandate you and the board purport to have under the Audit Service Regulations 2011 (CI70) is that of the Principal Spending Officer – hence I am not accountable to you.
“That said, not even a pesewa is outstanding against me for any advance or imprest that I took for any of my travels.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana