It is imperative for the Auditor General and his office to, at all times, be “independent” of government’s influence so that the public purse can be adequately protected from waste, new Auditor General Daniel Yaw Domelevo has said.

Mr Domelevo is one of President John Mahama’s last-minute appointments made in the dying embers of the administration of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which lost the 7 December 2016 polls.

Speaking to Moro Awudu on Tuesday, 21 February on Class91.3FM and Association of Chartered Certified Accountants' Thinking Ahead segment of the Executive Breakfast Show, Mr Domelevo said he felt good about his appointment by the outgoing president despite the furore that greeted it.

“It made me feel very good,” Mr Domelevo told Moro Awudu, adding: “… I wish that Ghana actually adopts such a model whereby you appoint an Auditor General who you are not going to work with so there is no pressure on the Auditor General and the one who comes in is not the one who appointed you, so there is no allegiance anywhere so that you can remain focused on the country Ghana. So to me, it’s good.”

Mr Domelevo said “one of the key things of an auditor is his independence, take away the independence and he is not anything else”, thus, the need to for his office to be absolutely independent of the influence of whichever government is in office.