CHRAJ "too lenient" with public officers who refuse to declare assets

Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo says the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) is "too lenient" with public officers who refuse to declare their assets before assuming office.

According to him, although no punitive measures are mentioned in the asset declaration law - (Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and the Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act 1998, (Act 550) - such persons are illegal occupants of their posts by their failure to declare their assets and CHRAJ must ask them to vacate as soon as it is proven.

He said unlike, under the PNDC Law 280 where specific sanctions were prescribed, there were no specific sanctions under the new law, although abuses could be reported to CHRAJ.

"Currently, there are no defined punitive measures, people can get away with it and buses are reported to CHRAJ and from my point of view CHRAJ is very lenient whenever cases come to their notice," Mr Domelevo said in an interview on Joy News.

"The constitution says you must do that before taking office, so if you have not done that, then to me you are occupying the office unconstitutionally, so the minimum CHRAJ could have just done is to ask you to vacate that post".

Audit service unable to verify assets of public officials

He added that currently, the Ghana Audit Service was not equipped to verify assets declared by public officers to the Ghana Audit Service.

He also explained that the asset declaration law mandates all public officers whose remuneration is equal to or above a Director of the Civil Service to declare their assets.