Martin Luther Kpebu, a private legal practitioner has reiterated the his call for the President to present the ‘The Conduct of the Public Officers’ Bill’ in Parliament to be passed in order to help curb corruption.
The lawyer says the status quo which allows public officers to declare their assets in secret will not help the fight against corruption, thereby advocating for a legislation that will allow assets of public officers published so that citizens can have access to them.
He says that is the only way people would be able to inform anti-corruption agencies when public officers unduly acquire assets during their tenure in office.
His comments come on the back of the President’s refusal to talk about corruption during Tuesday’s State of the Nation address (SONA) but indicating that the 1992 Constitution has served Ghana well.
President Akufo-Addo during his address noted that although Ghana’s Constitution needs some amendments, it should not be regarded as a bad document as people have described and caused it to be scrapped totally.
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Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday, March 02, 2024, the astute lawyer bemoaned how Akufo-Addo has acted on the bill with no sense of urgency, asking that the President desists from the lame excuses he has been giving over the issue.
“…Now you come to corruption, the other part of it and we found out that the law on corruption is not good and as part of it we want an asset declaration law that will say that for assets that are declared, citizens can have access. It should be published. Publish, publish or perish and the President has been dancing around, we are not able to do anything to it. It looks like he won’t even present the bill anymore to Parliament.
“The Conduct of Public Officers’ bill; this is the bill he has been running away from. The last time I heard him talk about it was the previous September. He said he will bring a world class bill [but] from September we are in March we still haven’t seen the bill,” he indicated.
On the statement that the 1992 Constitution has served the nation well, Martin Kpebu said the government’s insistence that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) be elected on partisan lines against what many Ghanaians opted for per a CDD survey shows how the President’s comment is untrue, but Constitution rather serving the parochial interest of the First family.
“…So when he makes such a statement that this Constitution has served us well, then I’m like no no no…he is now looking for lame excuses that we should find ways of making it better to a consensus. What consensus could there have been that 76% of the citizens led by Samson Lardi Ayenini, saying that we want election of MMDCEs on nonpartisan lines and this debate didn’t start today” disclosing that it started over 50 years ago where people even demonstrated on it as contained in Dr. Obed Asamoah’s book.
“The statement should have been it has served the President’s parochial interest and made his family rich,” he said.
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