An Anitgraft Campaigner, Vitus Azeem, has revealed that laws enacted by parliamentarians insist that the Auditor-General has no right to among other things, make the declarations of assets of government officials public.
According to him, it is a “very weak law” and has no basis because the constitution states that the Auditor-General shall put in place measures to operationalize the law. He explained that if the Auditor-General deems it appropriate to probe into the assets of public officials, he must not be prevented.
“The missing link is first the law enacted by parliament. Parliamentarians insist that the Auditor-General has no right to even open the declaration and look at them and two, to verify them, and three to publicly make the declarations public… So, if the Auditor-General thinks that the best for him is to open the envelope and look at it and see what you have put there… there’s nothing wrong with that. We’ve done this under the PNDC. The politicians themselves do not have the political will to get these things done.”
Vitus Azeem
Mr Azeem expressed that it is also the responsibility of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice to oversee the investigations of the assets of these officials and establish whether they have declared their assets or not. He indicated that if the person has not done that, the Commission is in the right position to prescribe sanctions.
“We have not seen much of what CHRAJ has done in such regard. CHRAJ is folding its hands and waiting for somebody to come and petition that this particular officer has not declared his or her asset because the Act does not say that CHRAJ should call for various declaration and see whether they are genuine declaration or not; or even to ask the Auditor-General to publish the names of people who have declared so that the Ghanaians can look at it and say my MP’s name is not on the list… then CHRAJ can investigate. But that is not happening…”
Vitus Azeem
Constitution of board for Special Prosecutor
Commenting on the absence of a constituted board to aid the work of the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Mr Azeem highlighted that the absence of a board has had a negative impact on the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng’s output. He explained that if the OSP is not able to perform its functions, it means that “you are clipping the wings of the Special Prosecutor”.
“Well, he himself has said that the lack of a board impacts negatively on his work. So, we don’t need to restate that. The law that set up this institution has made it clear that they need to have boards, they give out the composition of those boards [and] they spell out their function. So, if you don’t have a board, it means that those functions that have been spelt out in the law to set up the Office of the Special Prosecutor cannot be performed, that is very clear.”
Vitus Azeem
Meanwhile, the anitgraft campaigner has commended Kissi Agyebeng on the number of cases he has taken on since he assumed office. He revealed that he has been in expectation of the “Office of the Special Prosecutor to take people to court and successfully prosecute them on corruption”.
In the case of the PPA boss, Mr Azeem highlighted that although Mr Agyebeng delayed for a year, he is making efforts by sending him to court, further lauding his efforts in freezing the assets of Sir John.
“We look forward to more of these things, otherwise, state resources are just being looted and people take them away and just enjoy themselves. So, we can commend him for that but we expect him to do more but for him to be able to do more, we expect the President to do more, give him the assurance that he is given the necessary support [and] the necessary resources; including a board of directors. If the President does not do that, we see that it is a lack of political will or even the deliberate desire to clip the wings of the Office.”
Vitus Azeem
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