Why Ghana's Asset Declaration law is not fighting graft as intended

Article 286 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana requires public office holders to declare their assets and liabilities before they assume office. They are also required to do same at the end of every four years and at the end of their term of office. But enforcing this has been a challenge for several governments over the years. 

Out of the current 276 Members of Parliament, 151 are yet to declare their assets and liabilities a year into their term. This number includes MPs who have been in parliament for over a decade.  

In this episode of the podcast, Seth Bokpe who has been reporting on asset declaration in Ghana since 2022 for The Fourth Estate, joins us to explain why enforcement of this law is a challenge and who is responsible for ensuring public office holders are held accountable when they fail to declare their assets and liabilities.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

From the Media Foundation for West Africa, this is the Fourth Estate podcast. Hello and welcome, I'm Nia Krofis Matabe. Accountability by public office holders in Ghana has long been a challenge for nearly every administration. 13 former appointees in the Kufado administration, for example, are either standing trial or under investigation for acts of financial impropriety during their term in office. All this is happening despite guardrails like the asset declaration law designed to ensure public office holders do not use their office to enrich themselves. But the application of this law appears to be largely ineffective. Seth Boupe and Philippe Ter Abouvi have been going through the Auditor General's report and reports that half of the members of Parliament, for instance, have not declared their assets a year into their term. Seth joins me now with some more details. Seth, welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

So now let's put this in context for everybody listening. How exactly does the asset declaration law work?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Well, the idea of the asset declaration law is to ensure that public office holders do not use their positions to acquire wealth illegally while in office. So what it does is to track what you had, your assets, not just assets, but liabilities as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Before you came to office and then after you've exited. So it requires that you declare your assets within six months for assuming office. And within six months after you've exited.

unknown 1:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

But there is a problem with even that position, because it seems to be a conflicting position of the law. If you take that article 286 of the 1990 constitution, it says that before you assume office, you should do the declaration.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

So once you've been appointed.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

We've been appointed, you should do the declaration. Okay. However, at 550 creates a certain loophole for our politicians to exploit. So that art says that within six months of assuming office, you have a responsibility to declare your assets and liabilities.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

So there's that gap. As to whether you do it immediately you are appointed or six months into your assumption of office. But by the law, who is supposed to declare their assets? Is it just the appointees or who else?

SPEAKER_00 2:54

So there is a long list of public office holders, if I'm permitted to mention them. So the presidents of the country, the vice president, the speaker, the deputy speaker, and members of parliament, ministers of state and their deputies, the chief justice, justices of the superior courts, meaning high courts, court of appeal, and then the Supreme Court, the Chairman of Regional Tribunals, the Commissioner for the Human Rights and Administrative Justice Charge, his deputies and all judicial officers, ambassadors and high commissioners, secretary to cabinet, head of ministry or government departments, equivalent to office in the civil service. So if you are an official of the ministries, departments, and agencies, you need to. And then also heads of companies in which the state has an interest.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Okay. So what we usually call state-owned enterprises? State interest.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yes. State-owned enterprises. Okay. Or any institution in which the state has a controlling interest. Yes. You're supposed to do the declaration.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Okay. But as we've established, there seems to be an enforcement problem. And I'm thinking, and I'm sure many people would also think the same, that are there no punishments for this kind of behavior, which is why, you know, year after year or every four years, as they're supposed to do, we get fewer and fewer people declaring their assets upon assuming office.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

It is really strange that for an important anti-graft law like the asset declaration law, there is no stated punitive measure. If you look at at 550, it leaves the discretion to Shraj to um, as it were, issue the punishment for want of a better word, to issue the punishment to the defaulting public office holders. So it makes it easy for them to, you know, decide to comply or not to.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

So at the end of the day, Shraj is the law enforcer in this particular situation. Absolutely. Okay. You've been following this particular story for a while now, and especially for the fourth estate, you've been doing it. Um, how is Shraj's enforcement? What have you seen Sharaj do in this particular instance?

SPEAKER_00 5:23

I would say Sharaj has been lazy and sleepy when it comes to enforcement of that declaration law, because you can easily count the number of people that Sharaj has held accountable for failing to declare their asset and liabilities. And I'll give you a recent example to justify why I'm saying Straj has been lazy. So when we did this series in 2022, a group of five people petitioned Shraj to look into this matter. I think this was in July 2022. And then subsequently, the Media Foundation for West Africa, another organization, organized a forum, and an official of Sharaj was present. And he said that they were actually investigating over 400 people who had failed to do the declaration. And we are talking about ministers, judges, and CEOs of state institutions and so on. Well, Shiraj never issued any reports on that investigation. So what I did in 2025, specifically November 11th, is to write to Shiraj and ask for a copy of the investigative report on the asset declaration petition before them. They didn't respond to me. And as required by the law, the request went to the information officer. So I followed up with an internal appeal to the Shiraj Commissioner, Mr. Wittal. He also didn't respond to me. So early this year, I wrote a petition to the RTI Commission, the Right Information Commission, asking them to compel Shiraj to release their reports. And you will be shocked if I tell you what Sharaj told the commission to the commission.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

What did they say?

SPEAKER_00 7:17

It's very funny. One, Sharaj says that it is not 400 people that they investigated because the data the complainant supplied them was less than 400 people, and that they were looking at somewhere around 283 people. Okay, fine. If that is what they they insist on. Guess what? Out of the 283 people, Schride says they could only serve letters on 149 people. The others, Schride says they could not find the people. They also asked the ruling party at the time to help them get in contact with these people. It didn't happen. But you see, there's something very strange. We have these public office holders who occupy offices. So we know that, for instance, a minister will be found in a certain ministry.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

A member of parliament could be found in parliaments. The head of a state institution could be found on whichever entity he or she is heading. And apart from that, we have a chief of staff. If Shradd says it is struggling, or it was struggling to uh locate these people, it could easily go to the office of the what's the name? The chief of staff of staff and request from her to even serve these letters on these people. And I'm sure the the chief of staff's office would have handled that easily. But no. Now, the 149, they said that they could not reach about 83 or so of them. So that ended it. So they worked on about 50. And even that 50, they assigned because the people involved, the issue is very sensitive. It involved the assets and so on. They assigned a deputy commissioner, Mr. Queson, who later passed away. So they only completed five investigations. The 45 others, they couldn't do anything with it. And they couldn't find the file because the commissioner had passed on and they were searching for the document in his office. They couldn't find it until early this year. So this tells you that Sharaj is not serious when it comes to dealing with the defaults in asset declaration.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

And do we even know if they've made any decision, final determination on the file?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

So the funny thing is when uh the RTI commission asked us to meet and then they will deliberate and you know find a way for it for us to get the documents we asked for. They didn't turn up. Shraj didn't turn up.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So we still don't know what's happening.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

I still don't know. Even these five people they claim they have investigated, we don't know who they are.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

That's interesting. So you've been reporting on this for a while. We've talked about Shraj, which is supposed to be the enforcer in this situation, and they really don't seem to have done that much. Why did you decide to do another asset declaration story this year, knowing that probably, you know, we're gonna get the same names of people who haven't declared but not much else?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

So for us, the idea is for it to become part of the political culture in Ghana. That anytime there's a change in government, there should be compliance with the asset declaration law. Or anytime anyone is appointed to the public office, there should be a declaration of assets. Now, for this one, it was actually motivated by Mohammed's comments when he um, I don't know whether to say he summoned the Auditor General to the Jubilee House to do this declaration. On that day, um, I remember very well, February 18, 2025, he gave a directive to all his appointees at the time to declare the article and libraries by 31st March 2025. So when the month ended, March ended, we decided that we have to track and see if the declaration has been done. So we sent uh a request to the audit service. It responded by 17th April. So we did the tracking, and at the time, 55, at least 55 of them had not done the declaration.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

So, because I remember you did publish a story about that and what happened after you published the story?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

I was very happy with the results. Because again, the president summoned all his appointees in Accra to the Jubilee House and then launched a code of conduct for them. On that same day, he directed that they forfeit three months of their salary, um, which should be donated to the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, aka Mahama Case. That money became the seed money for the fund. I think probably this for me um is even the biggest achievement. Because in 2022, when we did this for the first time, we actually went as far back as the Mahama era, where we found that 11 of his ministers did not do the declaration. So, given this contest, the subsequent one we did last year, we found that for the first time since 2013, this is the time every single minister who had been appointed at the time had done the declaration. So for me, that's the biggest achievement. Because I told you earlier that we want it to be part of our political culture, that when you are appointed, you do the declaration. Even in its opaque form, it is better than nothing at all.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Um, as part of your reporting, you've also been speaking with the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, and one of the things they want is the passage of the conduct of public officers um bill. I'm wondering how this is going to change the game, if I can put it that way, because as you said, Sharaj is supposed to like be the enforcer here, but they really haven't been doing much. What else will another bill do differently?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Okay, I think the bill is very important because then it will fill the gap in the law, which does not prescribe a specific punishment for the lack of compliance. Okay. So as we speak now, if I wreak my memory, there are only two people who have been sanctioned in one way or the other for failing to declare their assets. There is ABAJ from the infamous contract for sale um story investigated by Manase, and he was banned for 10 years. And then his banned from holding public office. Then there is the board chairman, Professor Douglas Watten, who was banned for two years, but he didn't serve any term because he appealed to Shraj to reverse the decision. He then quickly goes to do the declaration. Then Shraj doesn't take any action for 10 months. By the time Shraj took a decision on the matter, the man had served in office as the board chairman of the Mineral Income Investment Fund. So it was just two months left for him to serve. Nothing happened. So he got away with it. And you were asking what would have changed.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

I think that it would have become easier for civil society, for instance, to ensure that even at your vetting, there will be questions asked as to whether you have done the declaration before even appearing before the vetting committee. And then thirdly, the good thing is that the Supreme Court recently cured that gap between Article 286 and Act 550 by insisting that go by the constitutional provision. You need to do the declaration before you assume office.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Okay. Yes. So now that is the new law. That is the new law now. So if I were, say, to be appointed to some whatever position tomorrow, I'm supposed to declare my assets and liabilities even before I go for the vetting.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Absolutely. So um I would agree with the Ghana Corruption Coalition that that law needs to be passed to ensure that we have a certain, you know, people respond to incentives. And one of those incentives is that you are clearly seeing that there is a punishment if you fail to comply. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

And okay, now let's turn our attention to parliament also, which is part of the series of stories you did, particularly this year, where from your reporting, five out of the 13 leaders in parliament have not declared their assets. And yeah, a little more than half of the MPs in the House have also not declared. Why is this so? Because it looks like in almost every report, there's a hundred plus of uh members of parliament who do not declare their assets. I struggle to think that it would be because they do not know the law.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

I remember speaking to the former charge commissioner, Justice Emil Schultz. He was blunt. The level of impunity is high because people know they will get away with it. The law is not being enforced, people know they will get away with it. So the MPs don't care. I mean, I would say they don't care because every single time there is a new parliament, there is an orientation for MPs. Part of the orientation is as a declaration. So if you look at the trend of declaration, you could see that there were specific dates that a lot of declarations were done. I think those are either after the orientation or immediately before the orientation.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Yes. So it is clear that they are oriented in a way to do the declaration. But it is also strange that if you become an MP and you don't know the statutory requirements of you that you need to fulfill before taking office and also after exiting. It's worrying. And one thing I also find very strange is that these public office holders will do the declaration before taking office and when they complete their term or when they resign or are sacked, they don't bother to do the declaration. So how do we measure your wealth before and after coming to office? It makes it difficult to do that.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Yeah. And interestingly, in your report also, it was clear that some MPs who are in their fourth, fifth, sixth terms had not declared their assets. What is their excuse? Because I think I can make an excuse for like a first-term person who would say, Oh, I only got to know during orientation and I'm putting things together. But four, five, six terms later on, you should know by now.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Absolutely. So when we're doing this report from previous experiences, we decided not to speak to them. But what we did is to ensure that the data was right. So we got this data back to the audit service, which is the custom of the asset declaration um documentation, to verify for us if indeed these people have still not done the declaration. Because from previous experience, the moment you publish the story, the moment you call them, you know we will call and will not publish the story the same day.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

So the moment you call them, they will quickly do the declaration. And when the story is published, they will counter it. That oh, we have done this declaration long ago. Why are you saying we haven't? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

So we decided not to because I was about to ask why you did not call them.

SPEAKER_00 19:56

Yes, we decided not to call them. However, there were very funny excuses that those we have done in the past had given. A certain deputy voter regional minister who served under Kufuado in his first term told us that, oh, I didn't get anything when I was in office. So I didn't know I was required to do the declaration. Another person said, Why am I required to do a declaration? I mean, I lived in my own house when I became a government official, but I didn't know I was required to do the declaration. Another person was so angry, he said he is not accountable to me. If I need answers to those questions, I should write to him. And I said, Why do I need to? It's a very simple question. Have you done the declaration? He said he's not accountable to me, so he won't respond to the question. So those were some of the excuses we had.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

And I'm going to wrap up with a with a question that would require maybe your personal opinion on this. I don't know if it's the best stuff to do, but is it worth having this asset declaration law when we know that A, there are gaps that people exploit, when B, it requires us passing another law to back this up. And even C, the Supreme Court has upheld what the Constitution says, but we don't know if it will actually become something that people will be punished for if they flout this or not. Is it worth it then?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

I think it is worth it if we revisit the current law in its current form. It is an opaque law. I would say it is useless. Because I mean, it is very easy for you know a public office holder to do proactive disclosure. If I say proactive disclosure, they don't have a property, but they will do the declaration that they have a property. So that when they come to office, they will take the opportunity to do whatever and acquire that property. And because they've backdated the property in their declaration form, you can't track it. You get it? Yeah. Because in its current form, the law does not even require the audit service to verify the assets declared.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

So wait, you mean I could say that I have property at um any fancy place in Accra and no one actually goes to check if I actually do have that.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Oh. Because the law says the audit service should just keep the documentation. If there is a petition or a court case that requires the document, the audit service should produce the document to the court or church. One of the things that actually fascinated me that got me into looking at asset declaration. In fact, my first degree, my thesis was on an asset declaration, I was looking at how civil society perceives our laws to fight crafts. So I started reading our asset declaration, and I found that Obama actually declared his dog. The dog was called Bow, the name stuck in my mind like that. He actually declared his dog as part of his assets, his properties. The revenue from the sale of his books were declared. And then also there was a Ghanaian who was serving in his office. His salary was online. I was shocked. So that thing thrilled me, and I began to look at our whole asset declaration regime, and I noticed that it is useless. It does not in any way fight grafts.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

What would it take to make it stronger? Because in your story, you list the African countries, Liberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Cape Verde. I know I said that was the last question, but please. And in their case, they actually publish the assets declared. Is that something we should be looking into?

SPEAKER_00 24:07

I think we should. I remember I read when I was reading my thesis, I read something that I think it was a majority leader at the time, Feliz Ousu Echampong. I'm not too sure about the name, but he said that in an African setting, it would be unfair to require a public office holder to declare their assets because I mean you could easily open them up for armed robbers, and then also it put pressure on them to you know give things to the citizenry, the electorate. You know the kind of demands we make on our politicians, it makes it easy for oh, this MP is rich, this uh minister is rich, and he lives right next to me. So it puts a lot of pressure on them, but I disagree. If you want to occupy a public office, you should be open to the scrutiny that comes with it. If you want to live a private life, nobody will come asking you questions. Because at your disposal, as a public office holder, is our public purse. That purse needs to be monitored. We need to ensure that every single city we put in that purse is protected. Because we know that there are corrupt politicians and they will use every means to steal from the pets. So the law in its current form doesn't make it easy for you to measure their wealth, their debts. They could even be using state funds to pay their debts. So we if we can't see the wealth you have, we should see what funds move into paying your debts. It's very important in its current form. It is terrible, it needs to be reviewed. We need to, if we need to amend it, we need to. If we can't amend it, we need to pass a much stronger law that makes them more accountable to the people.

unknown 26:04

All right.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Well, thank you very much, Seth Pope, for your time and for explaining the whole asset declaration process to us. Um, but that's it for this episode. My name is Nia Krofis Matabe. You join us again next time for another episode of the Fourth Estate podcast.