Respected lawyer Professor H. Kwesi Prempeh has called for the amendment of article 190 of the 1992 constitution in order to abolish the appointment of boards for agencies such as the Bank of Ghana, Audit Service, office of the Special Prosecutor and other such critical institutions which require independence to operate.
The call comes in the wake of the impasse between the Auditor general Daniel Domelevo and the board chairman of the audit service.
Mr. Domelevo is accusing Prof. Edward Dua-Agyeman and the board of the Audit Service of “unlawful interferences and violations” of his constitutional mandate.
He has since petitioned President Akufo-Addo to intervene over what he described as “manipulation” of procurement processes. The board chair has also sent a counter petition to the President on the same matter.
Commenting on the development on Facebook, Prof. Prempeh said: “We must amend article 190 of the Constitution to abolish the appointment of boards for non-commercial, regulatory, oversight, or investigative bodies like the Audit Service, Bank of Ghana, EOCO, OSP, FDA, etc. It is sufficient to require that such statutory bodies, which need professional and operational autonomy to be effective in the execution of their special mandates, make periodic reports to and be subject to the oversight powers of Parliament, in the same fashion as currently obtains for CHRAJ, the EC, NCCE, and the Judicial Service.
“It is obviously impossible in our culture to appoint a board for any of these statutory entities without the chairman or some other director on the board thinking they are thereby entitled to boss over the “CEO” or meddle in the regular everyday business of the entity. Let’s save boards for state commercial and industrial enterprises only”.
A similar sentiment has been shared by the President of policy think tank IMANI Africa Franklin Cudjoe who called on the President to protect the auditor.
“Dear Mr. President, if you look on for the Auditor-General to be harassed by the board and chair of the audit service, you would have killed the last pillar in the fight against graft and kissed your fight against procurement theft goodbye. I am hopeful you will intervene and push back those unjustly baying for the Auditor-General’s blood. And frankly, I do not understand why the Daily Guide newspaper is on a mission to destroy the Auditor-General”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
