Declare assets by March 31 or face sanctions! …President gives ultimatum to appointees

 President John Dramani Mahama has given his appoin­tees up to the end of March this year to declare their assets or face sanctions.

President Mahama said he took asset declaration seriously and expects full compliance from his appointees and those who are enjoined by the 1992 Consti­tution to do so.

“I have asked the chief of staff to send word to all my appointees to ensure that they declare their assets by the end of the first quarter of this year.

“I wish to stress that any appointee who fails to meet this deadline will face severe sanctions, not excluding removal from of­fice,” he stated.

President Mahama gave this directive at the Presidency in Accra yesterday when he publicly presented his completed asset declaration forms to the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu.

The presentation was in compliance with Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and the Public Office Holders Declaration of Assets and Disqualification Act, (Act 550).

President Mahama said while it was all well and good to punish corruption, a more effective way of addressing the canker was preventing it from occurring in the first place.

To this end, he said the asset declaration regime, if properly enforced, could become a sustainable tool for tackling the corruption menace which has plagued the country over the years.

“Corruption by nature is insidious and thrives under the cover of darkness. The more light is shone on it, the more likelihood that it would be fought successfully,” he said adding that the decision to do his publicly was to inject some transparency into the process.

In as much as government is resolved to holding past government officials account­able for their stewardship, President Mahama said he deemed it even more imperative to hold current public office holders account­able.

“Charity, they say begins at home. I am therefore determined to take the necessary steps to ensure that we fight corruption vig­orously so that the precious little resources that have been entrusted to us by the Gha­naian people are used only in their interest,” he said.

Acknowledging that the current asset declaration regime may not be effective, he said advantage must be taken of the current constitutional review process to strength­en the regime to make it more relevant to changing times.

“I believe we must move to a regime where the asset so declared can be published before and after public office so that the phenomenon of unexplained and over­night wealth, obviously earned through the proceeds of corruption, can be checked,” he suggested.

He said he looked forward to a healthy national debate around the subject so that “collectively, we can defeat the unwholesome canker of corruption.”

The Auditor-General, on his part ex­plained the process through which one could declare his or her assets.

“At our end, we receive the forms and just as his Excellency the President has done, you don’t seal it. We then [remove the forms] and see what entries have been made. What we look out for is whether you haven’t left any blank space. If we discover that a blank space has been left, we call you to refill it,” he explained.

He, however, said authenticating the infor­mation provided had become a difficulty for his outfit, stressing that the need to amend the constitution to address that lacuna was critical; throwing his weight behind the pro­posal by the President for the declared asset to be published.

 BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI

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