President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the former Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo “did not have the courage” to petition the Social Security National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to rectify his date of birth.
Aside from his purported Togolese nationality, Domelevo’s birthdate took centre stage of his retirement by President Akufo-Addo after it was also challenged by the Audit Service Board.
It will be recalled that in a letter dated March 3, 2021, Nana Akufo-Addo, through his secretary, Nana Bediatuo Asante 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 1st June 1960, and that in accordance with article 199 (1) of the Constitution, your date of retirement as Auditor-General was 1st June 2020.”
This was despite Mr. Domelevo’s earlier explanation that the 1960 date of birth was a mistake because his Catholic Baptismal register has Yaw as part of his name which also provides his date of birth as 1st June 1961 and corresponds with Thursday or Yaw- the day of the week on which he was born.
But the latest turn of event is that the President in a 21-page document to unbox the Domelevo-Retirement saga said its own investigations show that Mr. Domelevo failed to petition SSNIT to correct the error if it was indeed genuine.
“The Office of the President, through its investigations also discovered that Mr. Domelevo had not petitioned the Director-General of SSNIT to correct the mistake in his date of birth if indeed, it was a genuine mistake.”
“Moreover, if Mr. Domelevo’s baptismal certificate was issued in June 1961, as he stated in his letter of 27th February, 2021, then he could have used that baptismal certificate and other evidence to support his petition to the Director-General to amend his date of birth in the SSNIT records. He “did not have the courage” to petition the Director-General to rectify his date of birth.”, the statement added.
Critics and other Civil Society Organizations have said the basis on which the immediate Auditor-General was retired is problematic and an affront to the anti-corruption fight.
But Nana Akufo-Addo is convinced his decision has enough justification.
The Office said it has again reviewed all the documents made available to it and concluded that Mr. Domelevo’s date of retirement was 1st June 1960.
It further argued that no credible information had been put forth by the man in question to prove otherwise.
“No steps have been taken by Mr. Domelevo to contest his date of birth if indeed it was erroneous in the records of SSNIT. The formal process of petitioning the Director-General of SSNIT to correct a date had not been done”, the statement pointed out.
