The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) is asking the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, CHRAJ to investigate allegations of non compliance on the part of key public officials to declare their assets as required by the constitution.
The GII is calling on President John Mahama, Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, the Speaker of Parliament and all Parliamentarians who were sworn into office on January 7, to declare their assets as constitutionally mandated.
So far, the GII has noted that there is no indication that the provision has been complied with.
The GII is therefore asking CHRAJ to ensure public officials do what is right since it will affirm their fight against corruption.
The Executive Director of the GII, Vitus Azeem told Citi News, the Auditor General must publish on monthly bases those officials who have declared their assets and liabilities so that Ghanaians can identify defaulters.
“They should publish it on a monthly basis like January; they should publish the names of the groups that have declared their assets, they should do same in February and the months that follow after that,” he stated.
“CHRAJ can decide to be proactive and work on it otherwise it will wait for someone to come and report them…this serves as a reminder to people to do what is required of them.”
Mr. Azeem also indicated: “In 2009, even though they did it, they did it at different times; some did it beyond the time they should have done it. The time frame of the constitution states ‘upon assumption of office’ which means once you are sworn into office, you should but then parliament decided to pass a law that conflicts with the constitution.”
“The constitution is supreme…what the constitution says is the right thing so once you are sworn in as president, vice president or minister of state or parliamentarian, you are supposed to declare your assets,” he added.
Source: Citifmonline
