Ghana’s Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo, has pledged to recover every penny siphoned from the State’s coffers.
This comes after a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court (SC) ruled Wednesday ordering him to immediately initiate process of surcharging any person found to have misappropriated State funds.
Also, the panel headed by Ghana’s Chief Justice nominee, Justice Sophia Akuffo directed that where applicable, criminal action should be instituted against the accused persons by the country’s Attorney General.
Commenting on the ruling Thursday on Morning Starr, Mr. Domelevo welcomed the ruling with a pledge to execute it to the letter.
“The ruling bring clarity to the provisions of the constitution. Hitherto, there has been two schools of thoughts; one school is of the view that as long as the Auditor General produces the annual report to parliament and mentioned in there infractions and irregularities in financial management that was enough…which is the old school,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban.
“However,” he added, “there is another school of thought which I belong to which is of the view that the constitution is very clear that in the course of the audit, if you come across any expenditure which is contrary to law it must be disallowed and whoever is responsible to be held accountable.”
He said the unanimity of the ruling is extremely resounding and that “wherever there is outright embezzlement of state funds, we will go for it.”
This, he explained extends to private entities and individuals found to have siphoned the State’s coffers.
The SC’s ruling Wednesday was necessitated by an action instituted against the Attorney General and Auditor General by pressure group Occupy Ghana for refusing to surcharge persons who are said to have misappropriated monies belonging to the state to the tune of over GHS 40 billion.
