The Office of the President has added 44 more working days to the accumulated annual leave it directed the Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo to embark upon.
This latest amendment comes on the back of Mr. Domelevo’s letter to the Presidency urging President Akufo-Addo to reconsider the directive to proceed on his accumulated leave, claiming that it breaches the labour law and is unconstitutional.
In the letter, Domelevo argued that based on the labour law and recent practice, “no worker is deemed to have accumulated any leave on account of having failed, omitted, neglected or even refused to enjoy their right to annual leave, which the law guarantees for their benefit, not the employer.”
But the Presidency says although it is yet to be formally served with a copy of the letter, it has taken due notice of the content which has been widely spread in the media and on social media.
It has therefore decided to increase the accumulated annual leave of the Auditor-General from the initial 123 to 167 working days to include his period of leave for the year 2020 other than the earlier directive which only calculated the accumulated leave days from 2017 to 2019.
“First of all, for the avoidance of any doubt, your accumulated annual leave of 123 working days which you were directed to take with effect from Wednesday, July 1, 2020, was in respect of the period 2017 to 2019, which you had worked without taking any annual leave and did not include 2020. If, however, you have decided to include your annual leave for the year 2020, then it is expected that you will resume work after a well-deserved leave of 167 working days, with effect from July 1, 2020.”
On the matter relating to the legality of the directive, the letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante maintained that the Auditor-General has no knowledge in law and thus his perception of the directive being an affront to labour laws is “extremely misleading“.
It said the government’s decision is well-grounded in law and that Mr. Domelevo lacks a proper and legal understanding of his legal entitlements.
“It is necessary to correct the wrong impression you have sought to create in the public domain regarding the President’s directive to you to proceed on your accumulated annual leave. The President has at all times acted based on sound legal principles, the rule of law, and good governance practices, and the good people of Ghana will not be misled by your lack of understanding of the position of law, for which you may be forgiven since you are not a lawyer.”
“Accordingly, the directive of the President stands as amended above to the 167 working days with effect from 1st July 2020. While this letter is being sent to you through normal channels, we have taken the liberty to publish it publicly in the same medium by which your letter came to our attention. Please accept the President’s best wishes,” the statement concluded.
The President directed Mr. Domelevo to proceed on his accumulated annual leave of 123 working days.
Mr. Domelevo is said to have made use of nine out of his 132 annual leave days since assuming office in December 2016.
It took effect from Wednesday, July 1, 2020.
The Presidency said the directive was based on sections 20(1) and 31 of the Labour Act, 2003 (651).
