OccupyGhana joins suit challenging Auditor-General’s independence

OccupyGhana has been given the nod to join the suit challenging the independence and powers of the Auditor-General.

The pressure group has been given a week by the Supreme Court to file an amicus curiae on the said matter.

An amicus curiae simply means a friend of the court. This is when a non-party with an interest in the outcome of a pending lawsuit presents information in support of or against one of the parties to the lawsuit.

In many instances, an amicus brief attempts to draw the court’s attention to arguments or information that the parties may not have presented.

The apex court, on Tuesday, granted the group’s request after it had notified the court of its motion seeking leave to file the brief.

A private legal practitioner, Isaac Wilberforce Mensah, had taken the Auditor-General and the Audit Service Board to the apex court over the A-G’s independence.

The lawyer had argued that the A-G’s independence is limited to his audit functions and activities necessarily incidental to those functions.

He also argued that the appointment of officers and other employees of the Audit Service “is the sole exclusive of the Audit Service Board” without interference by the Auditor General.

The lawyer wants the apex court to declare as wrongful the A-G’s “deliberate absence from Board meetings without justifiable excuse.”

According to him, the A-G’s absence at the meetings “does not invalidate decisions taken at such Board meetings.”