Let's resist Audit Service Board's 'shameful' Togolese tagging of Domelevo - Kwaku Azar

He called on Ghanaians that such a move by the Audit Service must be resisted.

According to him the Audit Service Board has gone rogue and must be dissolved immediately.

His reactions come after the Audit Service Board wrote to Yaw Domelevo challenging his Ghanaian nationality and age.

The Board said his [Yaw Domelevo] own Social Security and National Insurance Trust records show he is a Togolese and not a Ghanaian and also due for retirement.

In a series of correspondence with Domelevo, the Board said he was born in 1960 per his records and, thus, should have gone on retirement mid-2020.

In a letter dated, February 26, 2021, the Audit Service Board said: "Records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) completed and signed by you indicate your date of birth as 1st June 1960 when you joined the scheme on 1st October 1978. The records show that you stated your tribe as Togolese and a non-Ghanaian. That your hometown is Agbatofe."

"On 25th October 1992, you completed and signed a SSNIT Change of Beneficiary Nomination form, stating your nationality as a Ghanaian and your hometown as Ada in the Greater Accra Region. The date of birth on your Ghanaian passport number A45800, issued on 28th February 1996 is 1st June 1961. That place of birth is stated as Kumasi, Ashanti Region," the letter said.

In his reply, Domelevo explained that his grandfather, Augustine Domelevo, was a native of Ada in the Greater Accra Region but migrated to Togo and stayed at Agbatofe.

"Either my father wrongly mentioned Agbatofe in Togo as his hometown to me, or I misconstrued it at the time," Domelevo explained, adding: "My mother is also a Ghanaian".

Concerning his date of birth, Domelevo stated that he noticed that the 1960 date of birth was a mistake when "I checked my information in the baptismal register of the Catholic Church in Adeemmra."

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"The register has Yaw as part of my name and also provides my date of birth as 1st June 1961 – this corresponds with Thursday or Yaw – the day of the week on which I was born."

The Audit Service Board, however, said: "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."

Commenting on the fallout from the development in a Facebook post, the US-based Law Professor said Ghanaians must come together to "reject this shameful and invidious attempt by the Board to paint the Auditor-General as a non-citizen."

He said "I stand with Daniel Yaw Domelevo as the only bona fide Auditor-General. I commend him for issuing 112 surcharge certificates that returned ₵67.3 million back to government coffers. I also commend him for rejecting about 51% of the ₵11.3 billion of the MDA’s commitments on grounds that they are invalid or fraudulent".

"Merely for doing his job and fighting corruption, he has been subjected to all manner of vilification and indignity. Today, the Board of the Audit Service, which unlawfully audited him and found nothing wrong during his tenure, has shamefully and maliciously accused him of not being a Ghanaian and falsifying his DOB."

"This notwithstanding that his birth certificate and passport put the matter to rest. Since when has the Board been charged with the responsibility of auditing the citizenship and age of the Auditor-General?" he wondered.

In his view, "Parliament has been too passive in this matter, even though the Auditor-General is accountable to it. Parliament can and must do more!” adding: “The Judicial Service, rather than gagging the media, should be auditing its processes to figure out why the apex court has not been able to timely decide the constitutionality of the President’s directive to the Auditor-General to take an involuntary leave".

"We must come together to reject this shameful and invidious attempt by the Board to paint the Auditor-General as a non-citizen. Professor Agyeman Dua and his Board have no mandate or expertise to determine who is and who is not a citizen. We are killing the Constitution softly with our actions and inactions. Those charged with its enforcement must wake up."