Former Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo has come to the defense of a Ministry of Education (MoE) accountant, insisting that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) owes him an apology for chastising him during a recent sitting.
In a Facebook post, Domelevo said he “vehemently disagrees with the PAC chair, Hon. Abena Osei Asare, when she chided the MoE Accountant from Donkorkrom instead of praising him.”
According to him, the accountant acted in the interest of the state by placing an embargo on a teacher’s salary after detecting an attempt to unlawfully draw additional payments.
“If I heard the exchange correctly, the teacher in question validated his own records in order to unlawfully receive additional salary.
“All that the Accountant ‘did wrong’ is to put embargo on the teacher’s salary in order to recover the unlawful payment. This action of the teacher may qualify for theft, fraud, embezzlement, misconduct or corruption,” Domelevo argued.
He further pointed out that the Auditor-General himself had failed to comply with the consequential orders of the Supreme Court in OccupyGhana v Attorney General.
Quoting Article 187(7)(b) of the Constitution, Domelevo said the Auditor-General was required to “disallow all expenditures contrary to law and surcharge the one who authorised the payment or the one whose misconduct or negligence occasioned the loss to the state.”
The former Auditor-General insisted that the accountant’s actions were fully supported by Section 17 of the Audit Service Act, 2000, and therefore deserved commendation rather than public criticism.
“The patriotic accountant who acted in accordance with the law was rather chastised instead of praised by the PAC Chair,” he stated.
Domelevo also dismissed the committee chair’s claim that Ghana’s Financial Regulations only permit a 40% recovery rate. “I have checked and cannot find the law that the Hon. Chair purports to rely on.
The Chair may want to point me to which section of the PFM Act or the PFM regulations, in the absence of which she owes the MoE Accountant an unqualified apology,” he stressed.
He argued that full recovery was the only justifiable option. “Some may wish to ask why 100% and not a fraction thereof. 100% because he unlawfully took the salary in advance and if he wants to rely on equity, he must come with clean hands — this teacher has dirty hands, hence his misbehaviour cannot be justified in law or policy. Hon PAC Chair please come again.”
His remarks come at a time when the PAC has taken a hard line on accountability, having just referred the Director of Internal Audit at the Ministry of Finance, Jacob Ahadzi, to the Attorney-General for prosecution over procurement breaches. Mr. Ahadzi admitted awarding contracts worth GH¢1.3 million without approval from the entity tender committee, in breach of the Public Procurement Act.
PAC Ranking Member, Samuel Atta Mills, reinforced the committee’s posture: “We have no choice but to recommend you to the Attorney-General for prosecution. When it comes to procurement, we are not going to compromise.”
The session also revisited unresolved issues involving the Ghana Statistical Service, with Mr. Ahadzi confirming that GH¢6,400 had been refunded into the Auditor-General’s recovery account but without proper documentation furnished to the Auditor-General.
For Domelevo, however, the committee’s handling of the MoE case remains deeply troubling. In his view, accountability must be applied fairly, and those who uphold the law — like the MoE accountant — should not be vilified in the process.
Source:Lovinghananews.com
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