I don't care if you remove me as Auditor-General, I'll go into farming - Domelevo

Following the recent public discussions, criticisms and praises on how he is going about his duties, the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo has reacted and said he does not care if he is removed from office.

Speaking at a bi-annual conference of Regional Auditors in Ho in the Volta Region on Thursday, Mr Domelevo said his father has plenty farmlands and so if he is removed from office, he would go into farming to feed Ghana.

He said he has heard some public critics saying they are going to remove him like "how they removed Charlotte Osei [former Electoral Commission boss]" from office.

Mr Domelevo insisted that public discussions of the work of the Audit Service must be based on principles and not personalities.

The Auditor-General has come under intense political scrutiny for some of his works; on Kroll and Associates and recently on the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) on how it granted scholarships to some students to go study abroad between 2012 and 2018 in particular.

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Advising the auditors at the Ho meeting, Mr Domelevo said: "We'll continue doing our work and I'd like to say have courage, we need courage to discharge our work, be courageous, nobody will kill you. The only thing which may happen is that you'll lose your job, it's not the end of life. You may be transferred, that's not the end of life.

"I have said it several times, people say, we'll remove you like how we removed Charlotte Osei and I said who said I care. I don't care, so if today, I'm told I've been removed, that is it, full stop. Life doesn't end here, I tell my children they shouldn't worry, at worse, my father has a lot of farmlands, I'll go and farm and feed this country. Life doesn't end here, so please be courageous, be bold and do your work for God and country, let's look at principles and not personalities," Mr Domelevo said.

Join fight against corruption

Graphic Online's Bright Selase Afavi reported from Ho that Mr Domelevo urged colleague auditors to assist in the fight against corruption in Ghana.

He said, doing so will help accelerate the country’s developmental process and added that corruption was a major canker that needed to be fought and defeated.

"We cannot say we are managing the public purse well when there is corruption. Corruption creates problems for our society," he said.

The conference was on the theme, "In the era of disallowance and surcharge, the role of Regional Auditors."

He urged auditors to do away with fear in fighting corruption and be bold to eliminate the canker to pave the way for accelerated national development.

Mr Domelevo urged auditors to do away with undesirable practices that had become a distinctive characteristic in public service delivery and strive to always abide by worthwhile principles even if these do not please big-name personalities.