The Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA) is calling for the strengthening and enforcement of the asset declaration regime in the country to help cut the rates of public officeholders unlawfully enriching themselves using the offices they occupy.
Executive Director of ASEPA, Mensah Thompson, said the law must be enforced to the latter to compel people to declare their assets before going into public service against the current oversight plaguing the public service in the country.
Speaking to Citi News, Mr. Thompson said: “We need to strengthen the Asset Declaration regime we have in this country. The current law doesn’t serve any purpose because you can’t see the declarations of Public Officeholders even after four years of the declarations”.
He is worried about the bleakness of enforcing the law which he said makes it very difficult to know how Public Officeholders are enriching or not, themselves in Public Office which he said defeats the “true purpose of the Asset Declaration law to ensure that the Officeholders do not use their office to enrich themselves.
“The law is not serving the purpose, and we need to reform the law and make it stronger and more transparent enough to serve the purpose.”
The Declaration of Assets and Disqualification Act 1995 is an act enacted to provide for the declaration of assets and liabilities by public office holders in conformity with Chapter twenty-four of the Constitution; to provide for disqualification from holding specified public offices as a result of adverse finding made or criminal conviction against individuals and to provide for related purposes.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has also recently commenced investigations into over 400 public officials who have failed to declare their assets, and nothing is yet said about the progress of that investigation.
