Auditor- General Solicitor, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelovo, has written to the counsel of the senior minister requesting for a fourteen days extension to enable them fully comply with the provisions of the Order 54A of C.I 10
This action comes as a result of the ongoing legal battle of the alleged procurement breaches and payment of cedi equivalent of GH¢4,869,421.87 to Kroll and Associates for “no work done” by the Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo.
The Auditor-General who was supposed to file with the Registrar of the High Court, five copies of all documents used in the disallowance and surcharge in respect of which the appeal by the senior minister in the case of was lodged but failed to comply within the time limit.
A letter signed by Sory@ Law legal firm dated January 21, 2020, said the appeal is by way of re-hearing as the authorities have stated, counsel for Mr Domelovo has started engagements with their client with a view of not only ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Order 54A rule 5(1) against the disallowance and surcharge in respect of Mr Osafo Marfo in his appeal.
It said, “in the light of the foregoing, we have our client’s instruction to engage you in terms of the provision of Order 80 rule 4(3) which allows the parties by the consent without any order of the court being made for that purpose to extend any period within which a person is required by the rules of court to serve, file or demand a pleading or other document, without any order of the court being made for that purpose”.
“We must add that if we do not receive your written consent within seven days from the date of this letter, we will be a constraint, as instructed by our clients to apply to the Court for extension of time in terms above indicated”, it added.
The Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo, and four others filed an appeal before an Accra High Court against the Auditor-General’s disallowance of a $1million payment made by the minister to private the United Kingdom-based firm Kroll & Associates.
The Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo, surcharged the Senior Minister for alleged procurement breaches and payment of cedi equivalent of GH¢4,869,421.87 to Kroll and Associates for “no work done”.
Mr Maafo argued that the findings violated the first appellant’s right to a fair hearing as the Auditor-General, in contravention of section 29 of Act 584 and articles 23 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution, failed to serve him with any audit observations containing any breaches by him before proceeding to issue the notice of intention to disallow/surcharge.
Counsel for the Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Oppong, contended that the determination by the Auditor General that, the payment of the sum of GH¢4,869,421.87 was without approval from Parliament and the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and thus offended article 181 of the 1992 Constitution and the Public Procurement Act, violated the appellants’ right to a hearing as same did not form part of the Audit Observations issued to the Ministry of Finance under section 29 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584).
Counsel averred that the Auditor-General committed a grave and fundamental error of law in purporting to investigate and make findings of breaches of the procurement law by the appellants when he had no such authority at law.
Source: Bismark Sackey
