Source: newsthemegh.com
In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court declared the Presidential order asking former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo to proceed on leave illegal.
Because he had only used nine of his 132 annual leave days since his appointment in December 2016, the Presidency asked the then-Auditor General to proceed on leave in July 2020.
In a statement dated Monday, June 29, and signed by Mr. Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications at the Presidency, President Akufo-Addo ordered Mr. Domelevo to take his accumulated annual leave of 123 days beginning on Wednesday, July 1, and to transfer all duties related to his office to Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, the Deputy Auditor-General, who will serve in that capacity “until his return from his well-deserved leave.”
According to the statement, the President’s choice was supported by sections 20 (1) and 31 of the 2003 Labour Act (Act 651), which are applicable to all workers, including those who hold public office, like the Auditor-General. In response to the presidential instruction, Mr. Domelevo requested that President Akufo-Addo rethink his order allowing him to proceed on his accrued vacation.
Despite knowing that his actions were “embarrassing the government,” Mr. Domelevo said that the directive had “serious implications for the constitutional independence of the office of the Auditor-General.”
But in contrast to the original directive, which only took into account the accumulated leave days from 2017 to 2019, the Office of the President instead increased the leave days by 44 more working days to a total of 167 working days to include his term of leave for the year 2020.
The Centre for Democratic Development and eight other civil society organizations petitioned the Supreme Court for a ruling that the President’s action was unconstitutional and therefore null and invalid, describing it as an insult to the office’s independence.
The failure of the president to retract the directive after multiple appeals was the impetus for the lawsuit that was filed in October 2020. The supreme court issued its ruling, upholding the petitioners’ plea, after a two-year hearing.
Justices Emmanuel Kulendi, Prof. Ashie Kotey, Mariama Owusu, Getrude Torkonoo, Lovelace Johnson, Prof. Henrietta Mensah Bonsu, and Nene Amegatcher heard the case.