The former Auditor-General, Mr. Osei Tutu Prempeh has expressed surprise at his arrest by the BNI over documents described as classified documents. According to him, the documents being described as such are documents that have long found their way into the public domain.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr. Prempeh said, he is mandated under the constitution as an Auditor General to submit reports annually on various government institutions to the Speaker of Parliament who in turn makes it available to the Public Accounts Committee.

He said copies of the reports are also made available to all the 200 parliamentarians, “ and once the Public Accounts Committee of parliament discusses contents, findings and recommendations of the reports they become public documents and portions of it are freely quoted, especially in the media.”

Mr. Prempeh explained that the reason why he keeps copies of all reports he personally issued since he became the Auditor General was to enable him refer to them anytime the need arose.

Mr. Prempeh was last Friday arrested at the Ridge Church where he had gone to worship during the Easter Festivities for keeping a number of classified state documents in his house in contravention of official regulations relating to the handling of vital state documents.