The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has rebuked the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) for claiming his Covid-19 letter to the Auditor General was an attempt to undermine the independence of a constitutional body and that the AG lacked the jurisdictional authority to advice the Auditor General in such matters.
According to Godfred Dame in the letter, the Article 187(5) of the 1992 constitution requires the Auditor General to present his report to Parliament for their attention on the findings therein pertaining to irregularities.
In the absence of this, the Attorney General described the move by the Auditor General to publish the report before Parliament scrutinizing the document as premature.
But the Civil Society Group in commenting on the matter vehemently opposed the position of the government legal advisor claiming could not advise the Auditor General.
However, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame has replied to the statements of the Center for Democratic Development reiterating that the Attorney General has the jurisdiction to advice the Auditor General as primary legal advisor of the state.
Read the full response of the AG
The attention of the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice has been drawn to a press statement issued by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) dated February 10, 2023 and entitled “The Akuffo Addo (sic) Government must cease its continuous assault on the Office of the Auditor-General”. In the said press statement, CDD-Ghana, takes issue with an opinion by the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice regarding the publication on the website of the Auditor Service of an audit into the Government’s Covid-19 transactions before the said audit report has been debated by Parliament and referred to an appropriate committee of Parliament in accordance with article 187(6) of the Constitution.
In addition to various wrong propositions of law, CDD-Ghana characterises the opinion of the Attorney-General as part of “a domineering superior posture that the Akuffo-Addo (sic) administration has adopted in dealing with the constitutionally independent office of the Auditor-General”. CDD-Ghana perceives the Attorney-General’s letter as an effort to “undermine the independence of the office of the Auditor-General and other independent constitutional bodies”. Quite bizarrely and in tune with the fundamentally incorrect constitutional theories bandied about by CDD-Ghana, a Vice-chair of the Board of CDD-Ghana stated on a radio programme, “Newsfile” on Joy FM, that, the Auditor-General is not part of the Audit Service of Ghana but a separate creation.
The Attorney-General considers it imperative to correct the palpable errors contained in and implied by the press release of CDD-Ghana, as same distort the relationship between the Attorney-General and the Auditor-General in the constitutional architecture of the Republic and have far-reaching implications for Ghana’s record in rooting out corruption.
It is thus clear that the propositions of CDD-Ghana and its board members can only result from an inadequate reading of the laws of Ghana, including the Constitution and the Audit Service Act.
Can the Attorney-General advise a member of the Public Services of Ghana, including the Auditor-General?
Does rendering legal advice amount to interference with the independence of the Auditor-General?
END!!!
GODFRED YEBOAH DAME
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL &
MINISTER FOR JUSTICE
