By Adu Koranteng
Occupy Ghana, a pressure group has warned all the 40, 000 public officer in the country to declare their assets and liabilities.
A press statement made available to The New Crusading GUIDE by the Pressure group the number of public officers who fall within this ‘salary-based requirement’ but who do not comply with the mandatory declaration of assets and liabilities exceeds 40,000 according to preliminary and raw data.
“In the Ministry of Education
alone, over 5,000 officers are covered. Others include the Ministries of
Finance and Health, each of which has over 3,000 officers covered. Each of the
Ministry of Interior, Ghana Health Service and Controller and Accountant
General’s Department has over 1000 officers covered. The Audit Service has well
over 600 officers affected,” a portion of the press release
said.
According to Occupy Ghana, the effect is that all of these public officers are
in breach of article 286 of the Constitution and should be facing sanctions
under article 287.
Read full statement
NON-COMPLIANCE
Article 286 of the Constitution demands the declaration of assets and
liabilities by the occupants of certain public offices under three circumstances:
(1) upon appointment, (2) every four years, and (3) at the end of the
appointment. This provision has become notorious for the breach of it rather
than compliance with it.
Often, the discourse has focused on the political offices that article 286(5)
specifically mentions. Scant attention has been paid to the Chairpersons, MDs
and CEOs, General Managers and Departmental Heads in public corporations and
companies “in which the State has a controlling interest,” who are also
covered. Possibly no attention is paid to the category the Constitution
specified as “such officers in the public service and any other public
institution as Parliament may prescribe.”
In the Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act,
1998 (Act 550), Parliament prescribed several additional, covered officers
including officers “in any other public office or public institution other than
the Armed Forces, the salary attached to which is equivalent to or above the
salary of a Director in the Civil Service.”
From preliminary and raw data to which we are privy, the number of public
officers who fall within this ‘salary-based requirement’ but who do not comply
with the mandatory declaration of assets and liabilities exceeds 40,000.
In the Ministry of Education alone, over 5,000 officers are covered. Others
include the Ministries of Finance and Health, each of which has over 3,000
officers covered. Each of the Ministry of Interior, Ghana Health Service and
Controller and Accountant General’s Department has over 1000 officers covered.
The Audit Service has well over 600 officers affected.
When we apply the ‘salary-based requirement’ to officers of the various other
Ministries, Departments, Agencies, Authorities, Commissions, Councils, Boards,
Services, Institutes, Organisations, Secretariats, Colleges, Programs,
Diplomatic Missions, and the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies,
then our 40,000 estimate appears extremely conservative. The actual figure
could exceed 10% of all public servants.
The effect is that all of these public officers are in breach of article 286 of
the Constitution and should be facing sanctions under article 287.
ONLINE DECLARATIONS
The sheer volume of declarations required brings into sharp focus the capacity
of the Auditor-General to receive the declarations and then verify them to
ensure that the correct declarations are made. The statutory requirement for
obtaining, completing and submitting hard copy forms is clearly obsolete and
impractical, and a fetter to both compliance and the Auditor-General’s audit
and verification responsibilities.
We therefore call upon the Government to, as a matter of extreme urgency,
procure necessary, appropriate and robust software that will make it easy both
for affected officers to comply by simply filling the forms online and for the
Auditor-General to audit and verify the declarations made. We also call for the
immediate amendment of Act 550 to provide statutory support for the online
declaration regime, if deemed necessary.
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
In our press release on Assets and Liabilities Declaration issued on January
28, 2018, we stated that the Auditor-General’s post-declaration audit and
verification function, which to the best of our knowledge have never happened,
are critical to ascertain whether the assets and liabilities are declared in
accordance with the law, upon the assumption the public officer assuming
office. The audit and verification would investigate whether the assets
declared actually exist, so as to prevent ‘assumptive’ declarations, where the
person declares non-existing assets now, based on the assumption that through
corruption those assets may be acquired later. The audit and verification would
also determine whether the declarations were submitted within the time provided
by the Constitution, and whether any new assets were acquired or liabilities
discharged while in office, so that an inquiry may be conducted into whether
those assets or the means to settle the declared liabilities were acquired genuinely.
We repeat that the only way to give voice and flesh to article 286 is to equip
the Auditor-General to verify and audit declarations that are submitted, or at
least a sample of them.
We once again call on the Auditor-General to outline a verification and audit
procedure that reflects the true and proper interpretation of the Constitution,
particularly article 286, in line with the above, and implement it forthwith.
Yours in the service of God and Country
