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General News of Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Source: Graphic.com.gh
2019-07-10
Former Deputy Chief of Staff, Ms. Valerie Sawyerr
Ms. Valerie Sawyerr, former badistant chief of staff, failed in her lawsuit challenging some audit findings that allegedly involved her in alleged breaches of the purchase procedures while she was was a member of the board of the Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas).
In a decision yesterday, the High Court of Accra dismissed Ms. Sawyerr's application for judicial review seeking a court order setting aside the audit conducted by a private company, Morrison & Associates, which had been engaged by the Office for Combating Organized Crime and Organized Crime. .
Ms. Sawyerr had stated in her application that it was the Auditor General who was mandated to audit Ghana Gas and not a private company hired by EOCO.
She also baderted that the findings of the audit violated the rules of natural judges, as she had not been fairly heard to respond to the findings.
The former Chief of Staff filed the application on October 8, 2018. The defendant, Attorney General (AG), EOCO and Deputy Police Commissioner KK Amoah (retired), who was the defendant at the time,.
Rejected application
In her judgment, Judge Jennifer Dodoo, who presided over the meeting, concluded that EOCO had not broken any law by hiring the private firm to audit.
She stated that the audit was part of an investigation process and that, as a result, EOCO had the necessary legal support to avail itself of it in its investigation processes.
On the issue of violation of natural justice, the court ruled that EOCO had of course heard a hearing from Ms. Sawyerr by inviting her on the basis that she was a subject of interest.
The court stated that this letter of invitation was part of the attachments at the request of the applicant.
Given this, the court stated that Ms. Sawyerr had the opportunity to be heard and that, therefore, the rules of natural justice had not been violated.
Ms. Sawyerr's lawyer was Mr. Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, while the Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame, represented the state.
The case of Mrs. Sawyerr
Ms. Sawyerr was a member of the Ghana Gas Board of Directors between August 2011 and January 2016.
On October 19, 2017, EOCO hired a private company, Morrison & Associates, to conduct a forensic audit of certain state organizations, including Ghana Gas.
Following the medico-legal audits, on 25 September 2018, EOCO invited Ms. Sawyerr to send a text message to ACP Amoah (ret) to inquire about the ongoing investigations into the activities of Ghana Gas.
However, Ms. Sawyerr's case was that the hiring of Morrison & Associates to audit the accounts of Ghana Gas was in violation of the laws of the country since the 1992 Constitution gave the Auditor General the exclusive power to control public accounts. from Ghana.
The applicant further stated that on 1 October 2018, the Auditor General, Mr. Daniel Yaw Demelevo, responded to the official inquiry stating that he had not instructed Morrison & Associates to proceed with the investigation. Ghana Gas audit and that he did not have the report that she was asking.
It also stated that under the Public Procurement Act 2003 (Law No. 663), only the Procurement Officer had the authority to investigate alleged violations of public procurement laws.
Ms. Sawyerr further argued that EOCO had not given her a fair trial and, therefore, her investigations had violated the rules of natural justice and were therefore illegal.
The petitioner also claimed that the appointment of ACP Amoah (ret) to the post of EOCO's Executive Director was contrary to Article 199 of the 1992 Constitution, since he was over 60 years old.
"Incompetent legally"
In a response from Mr. Dame, the AG first raised a preliminary legal objection qualifying the claim as incompetent because of the accession of ACP Amoah (retd) as respondent.
According to the Secretary-General, the Executive Director of EOCO is a public official and therefore can not be prosecuted as such.
The law, said the A-G, enjoined all those who bring legal proceedings against the government or public officials to direct such actions against the A-G, who is the government's main legal adviser.
"Article 293 of the Constitution prevents a public official from being held personally responsible for prosecutions arising from the performance of his professional or public duties," said A-G.
"No merit"
On the issue raised by Ms. Sawyerr that only the Auditor General could audit the accounts of Ghana Gas, the AG said that "Ghana Gas is a private limited company owned by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. .
"Therefore, within the meaning of the Constitution, in particular Article 187 (2) and Article 11 of Law 584, Ghana Gas is not subject to the audit powers of the Auditor General", indicates the report.
It is also the case of the AG that the commitment of Morrison & Associates by EOCO has not breached any law on public procurement because the audit firm does not have a public procurement law. was not financed with public funds.
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