Asset declaration regime 'complete joke' – A-G

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.