Private legal practitioner, John Ndebugre, has advised Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelovo to seek legal redress over the directive for him to go on a 123-working-day accumulated leave, instead of fighting President Akufo-Addo.

The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Zebilla speaking on Citi FM’ Eyewitness news Friday, July 3, 2020 noted that though the president has the power to direct the Auditor General to take his leave, if the latter hasn’t done so, Mr. Domelovo has a point against the way he was asked to proceed on leave.

“There is a point there about the President overdoing things and making those directives; maybe he [Akufo-Addo] should have gone to court to get a court order to compel him [Domelovo] to go on leave, but the President is short-circuited. And so, the solution for Mr. Domelovo is also to go to court and challenge the President’s rights to order him to go on accumulated leave”, Mr. Ndebugre said in the interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

He further noted that the Auditor General will not be able to return to his office after completing his leave if he fails to go to court.

“This is a matter of procedure. If you go to court, let’s say the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court declares that the President’s order was void, it will be void. I don’t think the way he is proceeding will help him because what he is implying to do is he is going to go on this 2020 leave, exhaust it and attempt to come back to the office; and he would be debarred… he will not be allowed to enter the office. So, his solution is to go to the court and challenge the procedure the President has adopted.”

Reacting to the president’s order for him to proceed on his accumulated 123 days leave, Daniel Domelevo, in a statement on July 3 said tenets of the country’s law flaw the President’s decision.

Citing the labour law, he noted that under no circumstance, has it been indicated that an employer’s responsibilities include forcing an employee to take their annual leave when they fail to do so. The law, he said, also guarantees the right to annual leave for the employee and not the employer’s benefit.

But Mr Ndebugre, speaking on Citi FM noted that every worker is mandated to take an annual leave, hence the president didn’t err but he could have used a different approach.

“I agreed that because it is an independent office [Auditor General office], maybe the President ought not to by Executive Fiat order him to go on leave. He should have gone to court for a court order and tell him [Domelovo] to go on leave. And if he [Akufo-Addo] went, he would be able to secure that order because every worker is supposed to go on leave every year.”