President Nana Akufo-Affo has in an interview with CNN, refuted claims that former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo was forced out of office.
He said Mr Domelevo’s resignation was due to his attainment of the national retirement age of 60.
“There’s a time for retiring which is prescribed by statue not my making. If you are 60 years old you’re suppose no longer to be able to work in the public service,” he said.
He added:“the Auditor-General, like me… should be some of the first [persons] to recognize the laws in our country.”
On the fight against corruption, the President said since his government came to power, Ghana’s anti-corruption ranking has “gone up several notches.”
“Am I satisfied that we’ve been effective? I will say yes. A lot has been done, and it is reflected in Ghana’s growing position and rankings of corruption in the world. We’ve gone up several notches since I came into office because we are dealing with these matters at the basic level,” he said.
“For the anti-corruption institutions of our country, when I came into office, [they] were very poorly resourced. We can talk all we like about corruption and make all the wonderful statements but if the instruments at your disposal for dealing with it are weak and blunt, you will get no result,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo on March 3, 2021, asked Mr. Domelevo to retire after he resumed work from his forced 167-day leave.
In a letter signed by Nana Asante Bediatuo, the Secretary to the President said “The attention of the President of the Republic has been drawn to records and documents made available to this Office by the Audit Service, that indicate that your date of birth is June 1, 1960, and that in accordance with article 199 (1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor-General was June 1, 2020.”
