President of the Imani Centre for Policy and Education has accused the Audit Service Board Chairman, Prof. Edward Dua Agyeman of attempting to hound the Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo out of office.

According to Franklin Cudjoe, the board should indicate fairly their interest to have the Auditor-General discontinue his work rather than employing covet means.

“It is better to say that you don’t want the man there at all than to be machiavellian in looking for every rule in your books to tag him out.”

A statement issued by the Audit Service Board ahead of his return from leave indicates that Mr Domelevo was due retirement June 1, 2020, following series of letters between the two parties.

According to the board, records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) provided by the Auditor-General indicated that his date of birth was “1st June 1960 when you joined the scheme on 1st October 1978.”

The Board further alleged that a record also showed that the hometown of Mr Domelevo is Agbetofe in Togo; making him non-Ghanaian, however, some changes were made on October 25, 1993.

It said Mr Demelevo’s date of birth was then changed to June 1, 1961, and the hometown was now Ada in the Greater Accra Region.

But speaking on PM: Express Tuesday, Franklin Cudjoe said the reasons by the board chair was “not convincing at all, except to say that what is playing out clearly is more than a witch-hunt.”

Describing the broad chairman’s actions as comical, the Imani boss called on President Akufo-Addo to demonstrate his commitment to the anti-graft fight by calling the audit boss to order.

“I am not entirely surprised, I think it’s one of these rather comical scenes that we have been served.

“I thought the President can put his foot on the ground and say this craziness must end.”

He observed that the government inability to back the fight against corruption will only mean that it has not learnt from the reaction in the last election.

“I think if there is anything, the Presidency should have learnt from the last election that people detest this whole idea of trying to hound or publicly sanction anti-corruption agents,” he said. 

Mr Yao Domelevo who has, however, provided explanations to all the allegations is expected to resume office Wednesday, March 3, 2021, after his 167-day accumulated leave.