Ghana’s assets declaration law foolish, replace it – Prof. Stephen Adei

The former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof Stephen Adei has called on the government to replace the current laws on asset declaration with a new one.

Speaking to GHOne TV, the renowned educationist described the current law on asset declaration as foolish.

“This foolish thing, you declare your assets and it is locked up in a locker and nobody will even see it again. What we need is an open declaration. So that when you go in and when you are going out everybody will know.

“When you are going in and you declare your asset, somebody will say Stephen Addai is lying. When he became a Minister of Education, he built ten houses. If you declare that you have two houses, other people will say you lied, and it should be published,” Prof. Adei stated.

However, the embattled former Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, has been charged by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for failing to declare her assets within 30 days.

Per the Charge Sheet filed on October 6, 2023, Cecilia Dapaah is facing a count of “failing to comply with a lawful demand of an authorized officer of the Office of the Special Prosecutor in the Performance of his function, contrary to section 69(1)(a) of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (Act 959).”

The brief facts of the case accompanying the charge according to the OSP were that, Madam Cecilia Dapaah was, until July 22, 2023, the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources.

It stated that, Madam Cecilia Dapaah is a suspect under investigation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for corruption and corruption-related offences.

The OSP stated that the acts including using public office for profit in respect of suspected tainted large cash sums reportedly stolen from her residential premises and also retrieved from same by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.