Serve Ghanaians, not the President and his appointees - Auditor-General ‘warns’ Public Servants

Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo has expressed grave worry at the fast rate at which Ghanaian citizens are losing trust in the Public Service, adding that persons occupying such offices have become more responsive to the president and his appointees rather than the citizenry.

He said, this narrative must change for public sector to redeem its depreciating reputation.

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The Auditor-General was speaking at the 2019 Inspirational Public Sector Leadership Awards in Accra, September 25, 2019.

Mr Domelevo said “I would like to say that we must change public sector and the key issue is that public sector looks up instead of looking down. Everybody in public sector want to satisfy the president or the minister and we don’t know that our job is to serve the public.”

He continued that, “We don’t know that our masters are the public. It’s not the minister …or the Auditor -so all the people working in audit service should work to serve the interest of Ghanaians not the Auditor-General”.

The public sector in Ghana has over the years been labelled inept, though several attempts have been made by successive government to restore an appreciable level of performance, accountability and transparency as well as efficiency in service delivery.

Bemoaning the high level of red tape in public sectors he said, “the timeliness of Auditing I think we must have to change it. If we look at all the laws they are about 20, 30, 40, 50 years old.”

“Technology has moved on to the point where there’s no reason why the audited report of our institutions should not be coming out a month or weeks after the end of the financial year”. If we get this message right, then the innovation will come.” Mr Domelevo added.

Even though, the word ‘public servant’ has lost its meaning, the AG has advised persons occupying such offices to administer their duties to serve the interest of Ghanaians, without fear or favour instead high-profile personalities.

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