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500 CSOs want President to rescind decision on Domelevo
ABOUT 500 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) across the country have begun a campaign to get President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to rescind his decision on the Auditor-General (AG), Daniel Domelevo’s accumulated leave.
Under the taglines #bringbackdomelevo and #letinstitutionswork, the CSOs are of the view that the action by the President was unconstitutional and a threat to the liberation of the AG and other independent governance institutions.
At the launch of the campaign in Accra yesterday, Dr Kojo Asante, Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) who read a statement on behalf of the CSOs,urged the President to reversehis decision to affirm his commitment against the corruption fight.
“We find the entire episode and the justification for the President’s action regrettable and inconsistent with both the letter and spirit of the 1992 Constitution.
“In our estimation, such actions only weaken our quest for good democratic governance grounded in the principle of checks and balances, rule of law and the pursuit of public accountability”, he said
The CSOs against Corruption include CDD-Ghana, SEND Ghana; Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII); Citizens Movement against Corruption (CMaC); Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) and Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG).
Others are Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA), Right To Information(RTI) Coalition; One Ghana Movement, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Penplusbytes.
President Akufo-Addo on Monday, June 29, 2020, directed Mr Domelevo to take his ‘accumulated leave’ of 123 days, beginning July, 1 2020, in compliance to sections 20(1) and 31 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651) which provides for a 15-day leave entitlement for a worker in a calendar year.
Further, a worker or an employee cannot enter into any agreement to forgo a leave entitlement; such agreement would be void. Mr Domelevo was said to have taken nine out of a possible 132 days since his appointment in 2016.
However, a reply from Mr Domelevo, challenging the legal basis on the presidential directive was met with a counter argument and directive that he should add his 2020 leave days; bringing the total to 167 days.
According to Dr Asante, the argument that Mr Domelevo had some accumulated leave was invalid because the Court of Appeal’s decision in the case of Samuel M.K Adrah versus Electricity Company of Ghana, the court said there was no such thing as accumulated leave and if workers did not take their leave, it was lost.
He said the 1992 Constitution did not give the President a Human Resource Manager role to be administering the leave of institutions like the AG’ Office and wondered if that meant the President could ask the Electoral Commissioner and the Chief Justice to proceed on leave or ‘discipline’ them as being done to the AG.
While acknowledging the fact that Mr Domelevo was without fault, he said his work as AG over the last three years had been impartial and exemplary and had been commended by many including the President himself for which reason the President should rethink his directives to save his own international image.
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GEXIM deepens relations with US EXIM Bank
A management team of the Ghana Export – Import Bank (GEXIM) led by the Acting Chief Executive, Sylvester Mensah met with the leadership of the Export–Import Bank of the United States (US EXIM) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 in Washington DC, United States of America.
The Acting President and Chairman of US EXIM, Mr. James C. Cruse and Vice President, International Relations, Ms. Isabel Galdiz received the GEXIM delegation, which included Deputy CEO for Banking, Mr. Moses Klu Mensah and Head of International Cooperation, Mr. Jonathan Christopher Koney at the headquarters of US EXIM.
The meeting offered the GEXIM team the opportunity to share the strategic direction of the Bank in line with the resetting agenda of the President of the Republic, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for the repositioning of the Ghanaian economy into an export-led one by providing the requisite investment to Ghanaian businesses.
Mr. James C. Cruse expressed US EXIM’s eagerness to deepen its existing relations with GEXIM and proposed the signing of a new Cooperative Framework Agreement following the expiration of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2019 to utilize US EXIM’s medium term loan guarantees to procure machinery by GEXIM for qualified Ghanaian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Mr.Sylvester Mensah thanked the Acting President and Chairman of US EXIM for hosting the GEXIM delegation and reaffirmed the Ghanaian government’s commitment to strengthening trade and investment between Ghana and its global partners for economic transformation of Ghana with GEXIM playing a pivotal role.
The two teams will be meeting on the sidelines of the 2025 US EXIM Annual Conference on 29th and April 30, 2025 to explore possible areas of collaboration and matching Ghanaian businesses to American companies. The meeting ended with an exchange of gifts.
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Many SOEs have been used as mere instruments for personal wealth accumulation –Pres.Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has expressed concern over the misuse of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) for personal financial gain by individuals in leadership positions.
Speaking during a meeting with Chief Executives of specified entities under the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) on Thursday, March 13, the President directly attributed the dire state of SOEs to their leadership, accusing chief executives, management teams, and governing boards of prioritising personal enrichment over organisational efficiency.
He pointed to bloated budgets, unjustified allowances, and unnecessary expenditures as factors draining public funds while SOEs continue to rely on government bailouts.
“Many SOEs have been used as mere instruments for personal wealth accumulation by appointees. The chief executives, management, and boards of these enterprises are responsible for this situation. Some SOEs have become perennial loss-makers, draining public funds with bloated budgets, unjustified allowances, and unnecessary expenditures while relying on government bailouts as if entitled to them. Many of these entities are at their lowest point in the entire history of the Fourth Republic,” he said.
President Mahama further noted that many SOEs have been plagued by inefficiencies, corruption, and mismanagement, leading to consistent financial losses. He cited the 2023 State Ownership Report by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), which highlighted systemic inefficiencies and wasteful expenditures within these entities.
He therefore reaffirmed his commitment to reforming under-performing SOEs and ensuring they serve national interests.
He warned that loss-making SOEs will no longer be tolerated and will either be merged, privatised, or closed.
“I will assess you based on your performance. If you do not align with the pace of the reset agenda, you may be asked to step aside. If that adds to the horror movie, so be it,” he added.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
