The new Voters’ Register: The Electoral Commission began compilation of a new voters’ register amidst unprecedented controversy in the history of elections in this country.
After a bout between the National Democratic Congress (NDC)/Other on one side and the Electoral Commission (EC)/Attorney General (AG) on the other, in the boxing ring of the Supreme Court, the ringside judges scored all the rounds for the EC/AG.
Beaten black and blue, the NDC/Other and their supporters insisted that the Supreme Court judges erred in upholding a law, C.I. 126, which was the basis for their loss. About seven years ago, another composition of the Supreme Court declared as insignificant a very important section of our Constitution, Art. 49 (3), which was about conduct of elections. That day, on August 29, 2013, Ghanaians were told that we can violate some laws and not even get invited to the police station to explain our actions, let alone, have a frightful day in court presided over by a mean judge who will just not smile.
This strange pronouncement by the Supreme Court of August 2013 tilted victory to the NDC in a 5-4 decision against the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The same people who celebrated the setting aside of a law are today angry that a law has been upheld. It seems we are a lawless nation, where laws are meant to be broken.
Having said this, the EC has started the new registration of voters, and its opponents continue to cry foul and even look at ways to make this new register look very ridiculous by having numbers on it, which defy common sense.
One way being designed here is to implement what they dubbed “Operation Guaranty Ten.” Meaning, a newly registered voter can safely put on the register ten possible ineligible voters by guaranteeing for them, as required by law.
My only advice to the Electoral Commissioner is to adopt and implement the wisdom of Jesus Christ in the Parable of the Weeds (St. Matthew 13:24-30). After the compilation of the register, the EC can go for the citizenship database and voters’ registers of all neighboring countries and have them uploaded into its database. Then, by modern Information Technology (IT), it can run facial and other identification checks, and all who come out as being on another country’s citizenship and/or voters’ database, should be weeded out. Those who guaranteed for them must as well be severely penalised. The affected countries should be notified so that, as punishment, the culprits are also weeded off there as well.
Ghanaians must be honest during this registration exercise, because if we allow foreigners to enter our citizenship database through falsehood, one day we shall wake up to find this country populated by foreigners, just as what has happened to La Cote d’Ivoire. If one spites the EC, that does mean he or she should lead the country into conflicts in the future.
Leaving the Auditor-General to go on Leave: The Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, has established himself as a crusader against corruption. He was faring well in demanding that all and sundry, especially those in public service, adhered to the laws. No one dare erred, no matter how minute the offense, and hope to go scot free, because Daniel had keen eyes all over the place.
Unfortunately for Daniel Domelevo, while he was dragging people perceived to be corrupt to court to explain why they did what they did, he overlooked some laws he himself had violated all along. These laws, the Constitution, the Labour Act and the Audit Service Act mandate all public and civil servants to take their annual leave. In fact, Section 31 of the Labour Act states: “An Agreement to relinquish the entitlement to annual leave or to forgo the leave is void.”
The Auditor-General has forty-four working days of leave every year, and this works out to about two months, one week, excluding any public holiday. Between 2017 and 2020, our AG had only taken nine working days of leave, and his Board Chairman, who understood the importance of this law, kept insisting that he should go on leave, but all the pleas fell on deaf ears.
I am not suggesting here that Daniel Domelevo has any ill motives, since I know him personally and can dare to vouch for his honesty, the framers of the laws on leave looked seriously at the evil intentions of people who manipulated the deferring of leave to their advantage, and to the disadvantage of the nation and the public purse, which Daniel had vowed to protect. There is a huge health advantage of going on leave. And there are corrupt reasons for deferring leaves.
Firstly, the reason why some people will decide not to go on leave is that they are into something shady, which will be made open if they step out of that chair and someone else sits in.
Secondly, refusal to go on leave will have the leave converted into cash, which is usually a handsome percentage of one’s gross salary.
Thirdly, one who has accrued leave can go on leave prior to retirement. He will step out of work and sit at home and be paid full salary and benefits during the duration of the accumulated leave period.
Here is the catchy bit. Someone who has accumulated a leave of forty-four days a year for ten years, and steps into retirement, will have twenty-two months and two weeks of salary and benefits paid to him, while he sits around every day playing with his grandchildren. If that fellow got paid GH¢10,000 a month, he was going to be paid GH¢225,000 salary alone, benefits not added.
Assuming there are a hundred of such people, then the state will lose GH¢22,500,000 (almost $4 million), which could improve conditions in some communities. And this is what the laws want to prevent, but this is what Daniel Domelevo overlooked in his case.
The incompetence or otherwise of Ag. Auditor Asiedu does not work here, because if Domelevo indicated that during his nine days leave, his deputy was not to attend board meetings, will he defer his retirement if it will be Asiedu who will take over from him? So whether the Ag. Auditor-General will be as effective as Domelevo, or just a complete incompetent fellow, is not the issue here. Daniel Domelevo set out to protect the national purse, but, unfortunately, by refusing to take his leave, this could set a precedent and encourage those who want to use deferring of their leave to do shady deals and/or receive from the chest huge sums of money they do not deserve, creating the opportunity to steal from state coffers.
Let us hope that the Auditor General’s Department’s ship will be piloted steadily over the course of his over seven months absence, so that when he is back in office, Daniel Domelevo will be fresh and strong to continue his crusade.
Hon Daniel Dugan343
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s editorial stance
The post An EC and an AG appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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