How several, inconsistent dates of birth got Chief Accounts Officer to early retirement
By DL News
Published
Updated
2 min read
She made a grave and seemingly indelible mistake by providing different dates on her personal record form which she filled out on the eve of her appointment as well as others that she filled out subsequently.
A Chief Accounts Officer at the Ghana Highway Authority(GHA) was retired and her salary ceased due to wrongful and inconsistent dates of birth she provided on her personal record form and others.
Madam Mercy Kabukie Tettehfio, who was initially a laborer at the Public Works Department, was transferred to the Ghana Highway Authority where she rose through the ranks to become a Chief Accounts Officer.
She however made a grave and seemingly indelible mistake by providing different dates on her personal record form which she filled on the eve of her appointment as well as others that she filled subsequently.
Even though she insisted that her actual date of birth, which is May 21, 1956, appears on her birth certificate, passport, and international certificate of vaccination, her employer did not budge.
Madam Kabukie, in admitting the mistaken dates, added that she took steps to amend the records with her employer when she became aware, but an amendment was refused.
It was not until her employer stopped paying her despite the fact that she was still in active service, that she came to terms with her forceful retirement and thus filed a suit at the High Court.
The High Court held for her and ordered the Ghana Highway Authority to amend its records to reflect her real date of birth and to pay her salary arrears with interest.
The case however went to the Court of Appeal which set aside the above and held that ‘the Appellant was properly retired by the Respondent.’
Further, the case climbed up higher to the Supreme Court before a five-member panel presided over by Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo.
In the judgment of Ackah-Yensu(Ms), the apex court found that the Court of Appeal “correctly applied the principles of evaluating the evidence and attached the correct probative value to the evidence adduced in relation to the party who carried the statutory burden of proof.”
It, therefore, held that having stated her date of birth as 21 May 1954 in 1980, Madam Kabukie was estopped from denying same, and thus the Ghana Highway Authority was bound by this date and they rightly retired her.
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