Vitus Azeem is an anti-corruption crusader
• Akufo-Addo says the acting Auditor-General has outperformed his former boss
• Vitus Azeem believes such comparison is infantile and unnecessary
• He adds that the president wants to announce through this that he will confirm the acting Auditor-General
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s comparison of the acting Auditor-General’s work and that of his predecessor, Daniel Yao Domelevo, is unnecessary, an anti-corruption crusader, Vitus Azeem, has stated.
On Wednesday, August 18, 2021, President Akufo-Addo, while speaking at a meeting with members of the Ghana National Anti-Corruption Coalition at the Jubilee House, stated that already, the acting Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, has outperformed the person before him.
“The Acting Auditor-General has demonstrated sufficient quality and independence of view. For instance, he is responsible for some things that are unheard of. In our history, the 12 statutory reports that have to be compiled and placed before Parliament in the year of Parliament, this is the first time it has ever been done.
“Even the most touted Auditor-General before him never managed to do it and this one has done it,” Akufo-Addo had said.
But Vitus Azeem is of the strong conviction that it was an unnecessary comparison that the president made, questioning why the president would even think of such a thing.
The anti-corruption crusader continued that while it is early days, the comments by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo only go to prove his intention to make Johnson Asiedu the substantive Auditor-General.
“Mr. Domelevo was not removed from office for poor performance in the first place and so comparing the two of them, I don’t think it was necessary. Mr. Domelevo was removed because of his age and since then, the president has appointed people to public offices who are older than 65 years, but he doesn’t see anything wrong with that.
“He is only laying the grounds to confirm the Acting Auditor-General as the substantive Auditor-General, which is what he does very often, praising his appointees,” he said.
Besides, he added, the president seems to be showing a trend where he has become used to heaping praises on his appointees regardless of their performances.
