Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah and President John Dramani Mahama
The issue of assets declaration in this country has never been without dark spaces. To put it bluntly it has never achieved its objective of ensuring transparency on the part of government appointees.
It is the reason members of the public regard politicians as privileged citizens who amass wealth because of the positions they hold.
During the banter between the Attorney General and and a Member of Parliament it came to light that a businessman offered financial support to one of them to prosecute his political agenda.
Amassing wealth outside the assets so declared is standard practice in our part of the world.
Government appointees and others who hold state jobs have always found loopholes in the highly formalized assets declaration brouhaha.
Apart from dragging their feet in meeting the demands of the declaration, appointees in some cases ignore the requirement.
President John Mahama has ordered his appointees to declare their assets by a stated timeline or lose their appointments. He sounded serious but fact is the seriousness ends there.
Many questioned the propriety of the order considering the fact that such declarations have existed over the years yet appointees have found ways of circumventing them albeit with impunity.
The President’s order would have been a step in the right direction but unfortunately the objective in this instance is intended to achieve a certain populist optics, period.
It is curious that the President has presented two cars which he said are gifts he received action which coincides with his orders on assets declaration.
What is it about the President that he attracts car gifts?
We must all as a people find a better option of managing assets declaration which we have observed is providing for the President and his propaganda machinery an impetus for continuing to do what they know best- populist activities.
We are dealing with babies with sharp teeth who have also mastered the art of thievery. They can easily manouvre the declaration to their advantage.
If there is something which requires the formation of a committee this is it and not the others which were anything but productive.
Let us constitute a committee to fashion out a document on how to manage assets declaration and monitor same periodically to ensure that the objective for which it was fashioned out is met for the public good.
The Constitution Review Committee can look over the enabling law and offer fine-tuning to meet public expectations on the asset declaration regime.
The status quo is merely demanding of appointees to declare their assets and that is the end.
What happened in previous times when so much noise was made about such declarations? Nothing. Is there any record of appointees being taken on for amassing wealth using their appointments? Negative.
We recall the Kanazue Ford Explorer gift and the brouhaha it generated in the country. Merely limiting the value of gifts to be taken by appointees to $50 or so does not mean much.
Appointees simply fizzle out from public view after amassing wealth to the detriment of the public purse.
The opaqueness associated with assets declaration will continue unless a fresh template that ensures transparency is carved out.
We shall not clap for the President’s orders until we are convinced that he really means business and ready to embrace sincere innovations to check abuse of office by appointees.
