A Labour Consultant Austin Gamey, has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to apologise for acting unconstitutionally in his directive to the former Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo to proceed on leave.

Mr Gamey, in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Monday, June 26, said he is surprised the President till date has not done the needful after the Supreme Court declared his action as unconstitutional.

“I am surprised they have not done it yet. To be honest with you error means error, and when that error remains it is not a fine thing,” he said.

According to him, in other jurisdictions, the President together with his party would have suffered some setbacks over the matter. However, “Ghana being a very traditionally partisan, parochial kind of a nation, this is what we will get out of it.”

https://myjoyonline.com/proceed-on-leave-mantra-should-be-a-thing-of-the-past-supreme-court/

His comments come after the Supreme Court ruled that the practice where public service workers are directed to ‘proceed on leave’ should be a thing of the past.

This follows its earlier ruling which described as unconstitutional the directive from the presidency that asked the former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo, to proceed on leave.

The court also ruled that the President erred by appointing someone to act in the capacity of the Auditor-General at the time.

According to Mr Gamey, although the harm has already been caused, it is not too late for the President to apologise to Ghanaians.

“Administratively, the Chief of Staff should be seen to be doing this. By writing and letting the President know that this must go public and everybody would applaud them if they should do it,” he said.

He added that if the President fails to heed the calls, “it will remain a debt forever.”

Speaking on the same show, private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu also backed calls for the President to render an apology for the constitutional breach.

According to him, the apology will show that the President and his secretary are quite remorseful for their conduct.

“.. this is Ghana, we said the President is A-rated.. so if now on hindsight it turned out that he was that wrong, I think an apology will do. Yes, he should render one, especially in these times when he has lost the whole nation.

"You see that the whole nation is no longer with him, one error too many, the economy – he sunk us into too much trouble and he has not rendered an apology for it…maybe he can add this Domelevo case to the economic decline he has thrown us into and render one composite apology to cover the two to heal the nation,” he told Blessed Sogah.

In July 2020, the presidency asked the then Auditor-General, Mr Domelevo to proceed on leave.

In a letter signed by Nana Asante Bediatuo, the Secretary to the President said “The attention of the President of the Republic has been drawn to records and documents made available to this Office by the Audit Service, that indicate that your date of birth is June 1, 1960 and that in accordance with article 199 (1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor-General was June 1, 2020,” the letter said.

Akufo-Addo retires Domelevo

By extension, therefore, “the President is of the view that you have formally left office.”

It added that Johnson Akuamoa-Asiedu will continue to act as Auditor-General until the President appoints a substantive head.

When Mr Domelevo pointed this out as unlawful, his leave was further extended from 123 days to 167 effective July 1, 2020.

Domelevo wasn’t forced out of office – Akufo-Addo

Consequently, President Akufo-Addo later explained that Mr Domelevo was not hounded out of office.

According to him, Mr Domelevo’s removal was due to his attainment of the national retirement age of 60.

“There’s a time for retiring which is prescribed by statute, not my making. If you are 60 years old you’re supposed no longer to be able to work in the public service,” he said.

Against this backdrop, nine civil society groups sued the Attorney General over these directives.

https://myjoyonline.com/asking-domelevo-to-proceed-on-leave-unconstitutional-supreme-court/

On Wednesday, May 31, 2023, the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision declared unconstitutional the directive from the presidency. The Court, however, opted not to issue any other orders including stopping Mr Domelevo from proceeding on leave since he has retired.

The former Auditor-General has welcomed the ruling. According to him, he is “happy” that ruling confirms his stance that the office of the president was on the wrong path with his forced leave.

However, in court today, the Supreme Court stated that the practice where public service workers are directed to ‘proceed on leave’ should be a thing of the past.