Acting Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu has expressed satisfaction with documents presented by the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo challenging the $1m surcharge on him.
This comes at a time when the substantive Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Demelevo has been asked to proceed on his accumulated annual leave by the President, Nana Akufo-Addo.
Mr. Domelevo had recommended the disallowance of the payment of the US$1million made by the government, through the Ministry of Finance to a private UK firm, Kroll and Associates.
He surcharged Mr. Osafo Maafo and four other officials of the Ministry of Finance, following what he said was the persistent failure of the Senior Minister to provide proof of actual work done.
A memo from Acting Auditor-General and sighted by citinewsroom.com advised both parties to continue the legal tussle given the successful inspection of the documents on the deal.
“We wish to state that we are satisfied with the processes and therefore propose that the lawyers inform the Supreme Court accordingly to enable both parties to go back to the High Court to continue with the proceedings in that court”.
The Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, was recently found guilty of contempt for failing to respond to a suit filed by the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo over the case.
According to the court, the reason given by Mr. Domelevo for his inability to respond was “untenable and an afterthought.”
Domelevo had said he was busy finishing up an audit report for Parliament, hence his failure to respond to the suit.
He was thus given 14 days to give his response.
Background
The Auditor-General in its annual report on Public Accounts of Ghana (PAG) as of 31 December 2018 on the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) stated that: “during our review of the contract with Kroll Associates, we noted that though there was no evidence of work done, the ministry, in 2018, paid an amount of US$1 million (the equivalent of GH¢4,890,000) to the company”.
The Senior Minister and the four other officials from the Ministry of Finance sued Mr. Domelevo to clear their names in relation to what was said to be breaches of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) that resulted in their payment of US$1 million to Kroll and Associates.
Mr. Osafo Maafo resorted to the courts because “the evidence available shows clearly that the Auditor-General erred in law and professional procedures in the exercise of his powers regarding his audit on payments to Kroll and Associates Limited.”
