Can Attorney General advise Auditor General on its report publication? : See Mr. Dame’s response

Last week, the Attorney General, Mr. Godfred Dame wrote to the Auditor General where he inter alia advised him to desist from the practice of publishing findings of his annual reports prior to them being considered by Parliament.

According to the AG, the Auditor General’s publication of its report of the special audit of the COVID-19 expenditure before the fulfillment of the constitutional requirement is premature.

Subsequently, political actors and civil society organizations including the Centre For Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) have reacted to the Attorney General's letter.

According to the CDD, such a piece of advice from Mr. Dame is proof of  “a domineering superior posture that the Akufo-Addo administration has adopted in dealing with the constitutionally independent office of the Auditor-General.”

Additionally, it said that such an act will undermine the independence of constitutional bodies including the Office of the Auditor General.

Mr. Dame's response

The Attorney General, Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame has meanwhile responded to the above in a release noting that the above constitutional theory by the CDD especially is fundamentally incorrect.

He said that per Article 189(2) of the 1992 Constitution, and per the letter and spirit of the laws governing its work, the Auditor General is part of the Audit Service of Ghana and by extension, the Public Services of Ghana and thus he(the Attorney General) can advise him pursuant to his mandate under Article 88 of same Constitution.

Moreover, Mr. Dame indicated that per section 2 of the Audit Service Act, 2000(Act 586) the Auditor General is the first member of the Audit Service and thus a part of the Service.

Also, according to the Attorney General, a reading of the Constitution will give an inescapable conclusion that he is fully clothed with the function of giving legal advice to all Public Services listed in Article 190(1) of the Constitution which the Audit Service is no exception.

Furthermore, the functional independence of the Auditor General under Article 187(7)(a) he said, does not infer immunity from legal advice from the Attorney General.