GII welcomes govt's assurance

GHANA Integrity Initiative (GII), an anti-corruption organisation, has welcomed the government’s assurance to review the Public Assets Declaration Law and lay before Parliament the Right to Information Bill.
The organisation, however, pointed out that a major challenge or weakness inherent in the review of the Public Assets Declaration Law was a section of the Public Office Holders Liability Bill which sought to empower the Auditor-General to keep information provided by office holders on their assets as confidential.
The Executive Secretary of GII, Mr Vitus Adaboo Azeem, told the Daily Graphic in Accra last Monday, that the section of the bill should be expunged otherwise the purpose of the law or assets declaration could be defeated.
The Public Assets Declaration Law is expected to be repealed by the Public Office Holders Liability Bill which is currently before Parliament.
He said when approved by Parliament, the new law would require all stakeholders to operate under the ambit of its stipulations to ensure that it was not used unduly to smear the image of individuals and organisations.
“Public Office holders should also not unnecessarily withhold information or should not be compelled to release information through court action”, he urged.
He called for the need for adequate sensitisation of the general public so that people’s rights were not abused.
Mr Azeem recalled that after the passage of the Assets Declaration Law in 1998, the Audit Service as an implementing agency failed to provide the regulations until 2007.
“We also made recommendation for amendments to the law because the supposed review is supposed to address the weakness that make it ineffective as an anti-corruption tool”, he said.
He expressed the hope that the review should take into consideration their proposed recommendation.
Among those recommendations, he said, included the need to provide public disclosure, verification by the Auditor-General or an appropriate authority, more frequent disclosure as done in other countries where public officers disclosed their assets yearly or at least after every two years.
The declaration, he said, should be extended to cover the Armed Forces and all other public officers who had in their custody and control public funds and assets.
Mr Azeem also welcomed the government’s assurance to lay before Parliament the Economic and Organised Crime Office Bill by the end of the year, to replace the Serious Fraud Office Law.
He urged the government to provide the necessary resources to the Economic and Organised Crime Office and some amount of independence to allow it to investigate and prosecute, according to its mandate.
Asked what differentiated the Economic and Organised Crime Office Bill from the Serious Fraud Office Law, he explained that the former would give the office the power to cease tainted property or property suspected to have been illegally acquired before proceeding with investigations.