Domelevo must blame himself for his forced retirement – Ayikoi Otoo

Former UK (UK) High Commissioner Ayikoi Otoo has said recently retired Auditor General Daniel Yao Donelevo himself should be blamed for presenting suspicious documents regarding his date and location of birth.

According to the former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Domelevo could have avoided the fate that befell him if in the past he had done the right things with regard to this vital information.

“In my opinion, he attacked himself by filling in all those inconsistent numbers, creating difficulties for himself, especially when he held people on the same level and even overloaded them for going over the top. term of office, ”he said.

He said the retired GA officially billed other people to stay on when they were supposed to have retired.

His comments come at a time when President Nana Akufo-Addo has asked the former GA to return home because his personal documents at the audit department show he has reached the mandatory retirement age of 60.

According to a presidential statement, Mr. Donelevo was supposed to have taken his compulsory retirement last year, in June 2020.

He had stayed mainly because according to his date of birth, which he claims to have been wrongly declared as June 1, 1960, had been corrected in 1961, meaning he was due to retire on June 1, 2021.

A day after resuming work after his 167 days off, the chairman of the audit service board said in a statement that Mr. Domelevo, according to their documents, was due to retire and that he was not Ghanaian after all.

Mr Donelevo has been in a scuffle with the government after overburdening former Prime Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo for contracting and paying millions of dollars to a UK-based audit firm, Kroll and Associates, allegedly for no work done.

The contract, according to the retired GA, did not yield any results contrary to what the former minister had previously supported.

In the development that followed, the GA was asked to take compulsory accumulated leave which he reluctantly obliged.

He was due to return on Wednesday March 3, 2021, having taken the 167 days off from last year.

Many, especially anti-corruption activists, had anticipated a confrontation in his audit service office between him and the chairman of the board, Professor Edward Dua Agyeman, but that never happened, at least this that day, because the journalists who had set up camp on the premises were disappointed. .

Hours later that day, a release from the presidency announced that the president had relieved him of his duties because, apparently, he was due to retire.

Anti-corruption activists were disappointed as some had thought he would be allowed to serve the remaining three months in dispute. A law professor, Professor Kweku Asare and co-chair of the Citizens ‘Movement, Eden Senanu had asked the president to even extend Mr. Domelevos’ term after serving the three months.

They claim he is one of the best public officials to have demonstrated commitment to the fight against corruption.

Addressing the issue during a discussion of the Key Points program on TV3 on Saturday, March 6, 2021, Mr. Otoo said he took the opposite view.

He said that Mr. Domelevo could not currently benefit from preferential treatment if it could not be extended to others simply because, according to the Constitution, he had to retire.

He said the case of the old AG is getting even worse because in the past he has held people to a high standard.

“It means everyone should be treated the same, so if you’re 60 and the law says if you’re 60 you have to quit, I can’t see anyone should say it, but they don’t have anything left. only three months, so let him be there.

“I don’t think it’s fair to me, as long as he is asked to retire based on his age, having turned 60, I have nothing against,” he said.