The oversight responsibility of the Attorney-General being in charge of asset declaration of public officers should be scraped, former Attorney-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, has called.
He says the core mandate of the A-G which is auditing state institutions is already a huge responsibility enough for asset declaration to be added, calling for an amendment of the Act 550 despite its entrenched position.
Speaking Thursday, October 12, 2023, during the thought leadership series on corruption which dialogued on ‘Public sector corruption, publishing of assets’, Mr. Domelevo said the last time he checked, over 50,000 public officers are required to declare their assets and adding the responsibility to the A-G’s office hampers it from concentrating on its core mandate.
“The Act 550 is entrenched so modifying it is going to be a tall order or expensive order” adding that “Asset declaration should not be the mandate of the Auditor General as it is now under the Act,” he stressed.
“The Article is entrenched so modifying it is very difficult. I personally think that the Auditor General is not well placed to be the best to administer assets and liabilities declaration. Except that people underrate the amount of work that the Auditor-General has to do, auditing the entire country, public institutions etc. The audit alone is too much so to add asset declaration to it to ensure that he doesn’t receive the necessary attention that it requires. So, to be able to administer asset and liability declaration effectively, it should not have been the responsibility of the Auditor-General,” he added.
Contributing to the topic at the same forum, the Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah Yeboah, called for an extension of the asset declaration act to include private businessmen.
According to him, the recent composition of the law is not fit for purpose since public officers can acquire properties in the name of family and friends whilst in service.
He says because the requirement is limited to only public officers, corrupt officials can steal state assets and register them in the name of their relatives who are not under public oath to keep it for them.
“We need to include private businessmen in the declaration. The Act must be extended and not limited to public officers alone. Because someone could acquire property in the name of a relative or friend who is a businessman. Because those persons do not have to declare their assets to anyone, public officers can still acquire properties under the guise of family and friends. That is why I am calling for a review of the Act,” he noted.
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