The cost of securing political office has become so expensive, a trend which is contributing to corruption in the country, former Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has observed.
Mr. Domelevo, speaking on Onua TV’s morning show, Maakye, noted the development has made the fight against corruption difficult since political office holders may want to recoup what they expended in the run-up to their elections.
Speaking on how corruption could be curbed, the former A-G indicated Ghana needs to embark on a self audit to ascertain how politicians acquire the sums they expend in their political campaigns.
“We can eradicate corruption but with the current trend of activity, it is not the best. And one that really disturbs me is that the cost of acquiring political office has become so huge such that it contributes a lot to corruption,” he said.
He continued that, “before you become an MP, a minister, it is millions and where did you get that money? Who loaned it to you or whose money was granted to you? And when you become the President, when you become the minister you have to pay back with interest. So acquiring a political office to me is serious,” he told host Captain Smart Monday, April 01, 2024.
He went ahead to demonstrate how politicians earn virtually nothing from their office but spend a lot in acquiring the offices.
“The last time I was speaking somewhere and I was saying do you reckon that in eight years being a President or Vice President or Minister you will not have earned even GHC5 million? Supposing the president should take GHC50,000 a month, it would have been GHC4.8 million in eight years.
“So, the question I was asking is that the former President who got GHC60 million to campaign, where did he get that money and Vice President’s GHC80 million, where did he get that from? That is the reason why I have been calling for lifestyle audit. We need lifestyle audit to determine the amounts spent and the source for such expenditure. So that we can tell Ghanaians how you got it,” he stated.
When asked if he thinks he was stopped from fighting corruption, Mr. Domelevo said “Oh yes, from my point of view I was actually stopped from fighting corruption. And I wrote that to the President when the letter came for me to go on leave. I said no, I have a constitutional mandate to issue audit reports within six months after the end of the financial year, so we were at the end of June and the audits had delayed and so I could not stop and go,” he disclosed.
He added that he told the President “my audits are disturbing you so you want me to stop and go on leave.”
Daniel Yaw Domelevo is an accountant who currently serves as a Board member of the Global Fund. He is a former Auditor-General of Ghana. He was appointed by John Dramani Mahama in 2016 to replace Richard Quartei Quartey who had retired from public service.
But President Akufo-Addo ousted him from office citing some reasons which the Supreme Court later found unfounded.
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