A local governance analyst has described the current Asset Declaration Law as a 'bogus piece' of legislation.

Dr. Eric Oduro Osae insists the current law does not help the country deal with corruption.

According to him, the law in its current form does not allow for verification and validation of what has been declared.

A situation he said no serious country countenances.

“The current asset declaration regime, I must say, is bogus because the system will not help us fight corruption. A situation where you can declare your asset, but nobody opens the envelope, nobody does a follow-up to do verification and validation is difficult for anybody to establish whether an asset has been acquired through illicit means or not.”

Dr. Oduro Osae thus wants the  2022 Conduct of Public Officers Bill to be passed into law to address that deficiency.

On a similar call, a Private Legal Practitioner, Martin Kpebu, also wants public officers to be made to automatically appear before CHRAJ to declare their assets.

He believes this will help check the looting of state properties. Martin Kpebu says this measure should be introduced to complement the Asset Declaration Law.

“The big fix we need is a mandatory or automatic appearance [of Public Officers] before CHRAJ and when they’re leaving office they go and account [for their properties] so that what is deemed to be unexplained will be taken away,” he said.

The Public Officers Declaration and Disqualification Act says any Public Officers should declare assets they owe directly or indirectly before assuming office, however, it appears most public officers do not comply with the Law before assuming office.

Recently, the nation was taken aback by a leaked document purported to be the will of the deceased CEO of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie.

It emerged in the document that portions of the Achimota Forest Reserve and the Ramsar site in Sakumono have been bequeathed to beneficiaries in the will.

Subsequent checks revealed that the then CEO of the Forestry Commission did not declare his assets before taking office and did not declare them throughout his tenure as the CEO of the Forestry Commission.