The political movement, Economic Fighters League has launched a campaign dubbed #HandsOffDomelevo to protest the intimidation of the Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo by EOC
Mr. Domelevo has been under investigation by the Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) over what they call alleged procurement breaches. Even though it was announced that a private citizen filed a petition against the Auditor-General, the said citizen has not been named. It has been suggested that the investigation amounts to persecution of the Auditor-General for his bold moves against corrupt public officials. Since assuming office, he has not only uncovered massive financial irregularities in the public sector but gone ahead to surcharge individuals and organisations and recovered over GHC 60 million so far
Despite this feat, Mr. Domelevo had come under intense attack from certain quarters. A pro-government newspaper, Daily Guide, made serious allegations against him. The paper alleged that the Audit Service under Domelevo procured some vehicles without following due procurement procedures. In a statement on 5th September 2018, the Audit Service denied the allegations and challenged the paper to show which provisions of the Public Procurement Act had been breached. Subsequently, pro-government group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) threatened to petition the President to remove the Auditor-General. It was after Mr. Domelevo surcharged the senior minister for paying Kroll Associates a UK company GHC 5.5 million allegedly for no work done that EOCO was reported to have started their investigation.
This has led to some questioning the genuineness of the investigation, saying it is meant to intimidate the Auditor-General. On 8th November 2019, the Fighters released a statement calling on what they called “partisan hawks” who had been “unleashed on the Auditor-General” to back off, and throwing their full support behind Mr. Domelevo and the Audit Service. Other anti-corruption campaigners have voiced the same concerns. Speaking on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, the Executive Director of the Centre for Democratic Development said it was not right that the Auditor-General seems to be check-mated in every move he makes and that there was a perception that he was being persecuted. The former head of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Vitus Azeem called on EOCO to withdraw their investigation and apologise to Mr. Domelevo.
According to a social media post, the Fighters said, #HandsOffDomelevo was a call to action, asking people to post messages on Facebook and Twitter, declaring their support for Domelevo. “Look if they bring him down, we the people lose. We must, therefore, raise our voices, shout at the rooftops. Use every means available to you to let your voice be heard that you support the Auditor-General and encourage him to chase the thieves without fear or favour”, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Domelevo has been fighting his own battle. At the beginning of this week, he wrote a letter to the Director of EOCO challenging their mandate to investigate corruption or procurement-related issues. On Wednesday, November 20th, he filed a case in court seeking among others for a declaration that EOCO has no mandate to do the investigations they are doing.
The Fighters are convinced that the mighty and powerful few are going after the Auditor-General because he threatens their unbridled stealing of state resources and has vowed to mobilise the public against any form of intimidation of him. Nsempii News will follow the developments surrounding #HandsOffDomelevo and update readers accordingly.
SOURCE: Nsempii News
