President John Dramani Mahama yesterday handed his relevant appointees a March 31, 2025 deadline to declare their assets in accordance with the required law or face possible dismissal.
The President issued the virtual ultimatum after he publicly submitted documents of his assets portfolio to the Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu, in compliance with the constitutional requirement outlined in Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution, and the Public Office Declaration of Asset and Disqualifications Act 1998, Act 550.
The assets declaration documents provide details of the President's property and assets.
The action was the first public submission of assets declaration documents by a President in the country and appeared to confirm President Mahama's commitment to transparency and accountability, a key theme in his 2024 election campaign.
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Following his action, President Mahama instructed all his appointees to declare their assets by March 31, 2025, with consequences, including removal from office, for non-compliance.
“I've just performed a simple but very important act of presenting my completed assets declaration forms to the Auditor-General as required by Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution and the Public Office Holder's Declaration of Assets and Disqualifications Act 1998, Act 550,” President Mahama said.
“Ghana's assets declaration regime and its related activities have often been shrouded in secrecy, and unless in special circumstances, compliance is often difficult to measure. In times past,
I would privately have presented these forms to the Auditor-General in fulfilment of my statutory obligation,” he added.
President Mahama said he took the step to present the asset declaration forms publicly “as a way of injecting some openness and transparency into the process of assets declaration.
“I've always maintained that while it is all well and good to punish corruption, a more effective way of addressing the canker is preventing it from occurring in the first place. I honestly believe that if properly curated and enforced, the assets declaration process can become a sustainable tool for tackling corruption,” he insisted.
He said while corruption by nature was insidious and thrived under the cover of darkness, “the more light that is shone on it, the more likely that it will be fought successfully”.
The Auditor-General, Mr Akuamoah-Asiedu, backed calls for the reformation of the current asset declaration regime as a measure to fight corruption.
“If you say you have 10 bank accounts, and you bring it to us, how are we to be sure that, indeed, it is only 10 bank accounts that you have? If you say you have two buildings, what can we do to ensure that it is exactly the two buildings that you have?
“So reviewing the Constitution, as His Excellency has said, I think is a very, very important issue that we have to take seriously.
And we also support the publishing (of assets declaration documents). If you submit your assets and declaration forms, we should be able to publish them freely.
“And the time that you are leaving office, too, we will publish it to see the changes that have happened ever since you started,” he suggested.
Mr Akuamoah-Asiedu said the current state of the law only allowed the Auditor-General to open the document to ensure that the forms were properly filled, but not necessarily to question or investigate the details.
“We are going to open it to see exactly what entries you have made.
What we are looking at is whether you have not left any blank spaces, or whether you have not left your bank balances because some may list all the banks that they have, but there will be no balances at it, and we will call you to come and redo it.
That's the extent to which we do this,” the Auditor-General said.
