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GII holds seminar on Asset Disclosure
Regime in Ghana
Accra, July 4, GNA – Mr. Richard Quayson, Deputy
Commissioner for the Commission for Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), on Wednesday said the
Declaration of Asset and Disqualification Act 550 (1998) for
Public Office Holders had been one of the most potent tools
that had checked corruption in the country.
"Nevertheless the practicality and effectiveness of this law
has often been questioned by the public, who have raised
various degrees of concerns with regard to the levels of
disclosures of such assets by public office holders and
public access to information on such disclosures," he said.
Mr. Quayson, who was addressing participants at the close of
a seminar on the Asset Disclosure Regime in Ghana, said
CHRAJ had also received various reports of allegations of
non-compliance or contraventions of the law for intervention
and appropriate actions taken on the results of the
investigations.
Members of Parliament, legal brains and representatives from
agencies responsible for the monitoring and investigation of
public officers attended the two-day workshop, which was
organised jointly by the GII, CDD-Ghana, United States
Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Audit
Service.
Mr. Quayson said nearly 10 years since the law was passed,
it was reasonable to question its performance and seek the
way forward to strengthening it, promote awareness and
support for the new guidelines on conflict of interest
guidelines and support efforts to increase information
exchange among key accountability institutions.
He urged the public to boldly give genuine leads to
information concerning suspected cases of corruption among
public office holders to allow the Commission to conduct
investigations and establish the facts without much public
interferences.
Mr. Quayson, however, cautioned that due to the sensitivity
of the nature of Assert Declaration, with its security
implications, care must be taken not to violate the privacy
rights of such officers when applying the law.
Ms. Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Acting Executive Secretary, Ghana
Initiative Integrity (GII), said the seminar which aimed at
strengthening the Assets Declaration Law in Ghana, became
necessary when GII's survey revealed that Ghanaians,
including public officials to whom the law applied, were
ignorant of the importance of the Act.
She noted that GII saw an effective asset declaration regime
as an effective anti-corruption tool to deter abuse of
power, protect public assets and interest and promote
integrity.
She called on Government to expedite action on the passage
of the Information Bill to facilitate public access to
information on activities of public officers and how they
used the Government purse.
Ms Ofori-Kwafo said Government must also adopt and implement
with dispatch the conflict of interest guidelines for public
officials developed by CHRAJ and the Ghana Anti-Corruption
Coalition.
"A strong code of conduct for public servants as well as
political appointees, especially those in position to hire,
fire and influence resource allocation was needed as a
matter of urgency," the Executive Secretary added.
Other speakers at a seminar called for the enforcement of
the Assets Declaration Act to mandate all public officers to
publicly disclose their assets.
They identified weakness in the administration of the
country's assets declaration regime and lack of sanctions
for those who failed to do so as major setbacks to the fight
against corruption.
Speaking on the "Importance and Role of Assets Declaration
Law in Ghana: Challenges in Implementation", Mr Kojo Pumpuni
Asante, Governance and Legal Policy Research Officer of the
Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), said compliance
with the obligation had been weak from the military era to
date.
He said the sensitivity attached to the nature of assets
declaration had made it difficult to achieve effectiveness,
as most public officers refused to oblige with the
directive.
Mr Asante describing the directive as "a taboo subject" to
some people explained that some public officers claimed that
declaring their assets would mean publicly inviting thieves
to attack them.
He mentioned lack of awareness of provisions of the Public
Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification)
Act 550, unavailability of the forms and lack of
coordination with institutions under which declarants were
employed as some of the challenges to effective enforcement.
Mr Asante said there was therefore the need to make the
declarations more accessible to the public and empower the
Auditor-General, who was the custodian of asset declaration
forms, to verify and regularly publish names of those who
declared their assets.
He said what constituted a gift for a public officer should
also be clearly spelt out in the Act, adding that, declaring
assets of spouses and dependent's children of such officers
must also be considered.
Mr Asante also called for a legislative instrument that
would empower CHRAJ to apply stringent sanctions for
officers who violated the law.
Mr Dennis Weller, Acting Mission Director of USAID said
fighting corruption and controlling ethnical conduct in the
public service was a priority to achieve economic progress.
He said USAID was committed to supporting the cause of
ensuring public office accountability in Ghana.
Mr Lawrence called for strong advocacy, saying it was
difficult for such critical reforms like the revision of the
asset disclosure law to move forward and urged civil society
and the media to play their watchdog roles to ensure that
public officers remained accountable to society.
GNA
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