GII CHASES GOV'T APPOINTEES OVER ASSETS

Marietta Brew Appiah Oppong - Attorney-General and Minister of Justice

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Thursday February 21, 2013.

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), local chapter of Transparency International (TI), has expressed concern about the flagrant disregard of a constitutional provision that mandates every public office holder to declare his/her assets before assuming office.

The Executive Director of the GII Vitus Azeem believes the failure by public office holders to declare their assets continues to put impediments in the way of the fight against corruption.

As part of efforts toward ensuring transparency and accountability in the public sector, The Public Office Holder (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification Act), 1998 (Act 550) was passed.

However, events over the past years have shown that public office holders, particularly ministers of state, have abused this constitutional provision with impunity.

Mr. Azeem told Citi FM in Accra on Tuesday that the time has come for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to lead the way in the investigation of allegations of non-compliance to deepen the culture of assets declarations.

He particularly called on President John Dramani Mahama, his Vice Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, the Speaker of Parliament and all parliamentarians, who were sworn into office on January 7, to declare their assets as mandated by the constitution.

He said the GII has noted that so far there has not been any indication that the provision has been complied with. 

The anti-corruption crusader called on the Auditor General to publish on monthly basis public officials who have declared their assets and liabilities so that Ghanaians could identify the defaulters. 

“They should publish it on a monthly basis like January; they should publish the names of the groups that have declared their assets, they should do same in February and the months that follow after that,” he stated.

“CHRAJ can decide to be proactive and work on it otherwise it will wait for someone to come and report them…this serves as a reminder to people to do what is required of them.”

Mr. Azeem also indicated that “in 2009, even though they did it, they did it at different times; some did it beyond the time they should have done it. The time frame of the constitution states ‘upon assumption of office’ which means once you are sworn into office, you should but then parliament decided to pass a law that conflicts with the constitution.” 

“The constitution is supreme…what the constitution says is the right thing so once you are sworn in as president, vice president or minister of state or parliamentarian, you are supposed to declare your assets,” he added.