Assets declaration by public officeholders can fight corruption – Anti-graft campaigner

Beauty Emefa Narteh, the Executive Secretary of the Ghana Anti-corruption Coalition, has suggested that a way to fight corruption among public office holders is for the Ghana Audit Service to be critically involved in ensuring public office holders heed to declaration of their assets upon assumption of office.

“The Ghana Audit Service must be critically involved in ensuring public officeholders heed to declaration of their assets upon assumption of office and every four years instead allowing them to declare their assets when they are about to leave office,” she explained.

Madam Narteh urged internal audits to work closely with the Ghana Audit Service to closely check public office holders in order to curb graft because some public office holders had been floating the law.

This follows the controversy by the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, the former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), whose Will went viral containing assets believed to have been acquired while manning his position as the Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission.

Speaking at the public forum organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa, concerning assets declaration by public office holders, Madam Nartey indicated that the internal audit should work closely with the Ghana Audit Service as part of the Audit Service to enable close check on government appointees to avoid flouting the Assets Declaration law.

“Engaging in that activity will help ensure government appointees declare their assets which will in a way save the nations purse and also protect persons involved against any future property conflicts,” she noted.

Vitus Azeem, the Executive Director of Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), urged the Auditor General if Members of Parliament and other public offices holders refuse to declare their assets upon assumption of position, they should take such persons to court for violating the 1992 Constitution.

Justice Abdulai, a private legal practitioner and a lecturer at the University of Professional Studies Accra, observed that government officials had difficulty in accessing the assets declaration forms and was reason most state officials had not declared their assets.