Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo has said the asset declaration process for public officials in Ghana, in its current form, is not effective at fighting graft and has described it as a “complete joke”.
The constitution mandates public officials to fill a form disclosing their assets upon assumption of office. The document is, however, sealed until a time that it is needed.
However, Mr Domelevo holds the view that even when public officials fill the form, there is no way of verifying that the information provided is authentic. Furthermore, the information on the form is not made public, hence it is a way of hiding assets of public officials.
Mr Domelevo was speaking at a roundtable organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on Tuesday, 15 August on the theme: “Fighting Corruption in the Public Sector of Ghana: The Role of assets declaration".
He was of the view that the country should scrap the current arrangement as it serves no purpose and advised that a more robust and effective system be adopted to fight public sector corruption.
In Mr Domelevo’s view, the current assets declaration regime is rather a means “for asset concealment”.
“How one can just look at the [asset declaration] form and relate it to [actual] assets which are kilometres away?” the Auditor-General wondered.
He said bank accounts provided on the forms by officials do not have printed bank statements attached as proof.
According to him, the whole arrangement does not help in getting accurate information on what public officials own, neither does it help to prevent graft, hence another system should be implemented.
Source: Classfmonline
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What recomendations were made for effective change of the old system? It is about time those in the helm of affairs start innitiatives that can benifit the nation as a whole than to speak out without any tangible processses for action.The law is not good lets chanhe it for a better one that can allow the public to monitor their leaders graft in the public sector.
Am sure after this lecture no institution will take the issue up for the current arrangement to change, not even the IEA. Yes it is asset concealment not asset declaration. It is not just a joke but just a bogus law to help champion corruption. Mr. AG and IEA, do something about this law or Ghana should forget about the fight against corruption.
Yes i agree the asset declaration is a joke, infact its actually aid corruption. The process must be reviewed and if possible details of assets declared must be publish