Former Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo has reignited the debate on asset declaration timelines for public officials in Ghana.
Advocating for a tighter, more constitutionally aligned deadline, Domelevo proposed that all officeholders declare their assets within one week of assuming office.
“Why can’t we say within a week? A limit of, say, one week is fine, but beyond that, the person will have seized the office and already know how juicy it is”.
Domelevo’s argument centers on a glaring contradiction between Ghana’s Constitution and the current law governing asset declarations. Article 286 of the Constitution clearly states that public officials must declare their assets before taking office.
However, Act 550, which governs the process, allows a six-month window after assumption of office — a provision Domelevo describes as “unconstitutional” and a loophole exploited by successive governments.
He explained “The Constitution says to declare before taking office, but now Parliament has decided even amending the Constitution to give six months to declare. This has superseded the constitutional provision because all the regimes have followed it. The current president is also telling the people to declare by March, which is not in the Constitution. This means the president respects Act 550 over Article 286 of the Constitution. So, I think we should look at that.”
He illustrated the absurdity of this discrepancy with a striking analogy at the Constitutional Review Committee.
Domelevo stressed“Can we imagine a situation where a president says, ‘I’ve won the election, so I don’t need to be sworn in; I’m just going to start as president’? We wouldn’t accept that. Yet, we tolerate officials assuming office without prior asset declaration, which the Constitution forbids.”
Domelevo stressed that ignoring the constitutional requirement should have serious consequences.
“If you assume office without declaring your assets, you have assumed office unconstitutionally. What should we do? Move you from office. That should be the natural consequence,” he asserted.
He also recalled a notable admission from former Attorney General Gloria Akuffo, who acknowledged in a letter to the activist group Occupy Ghana that Act 550’s provisions conflict with the Constitution.
“I’m not saying this applies only to the current president; all regimes are involved. I remember, Honorable Gloria Akuffo wrote a letter to Occupy Ghana acknowledging their position that the provision in Act 550 is unconstitutional. She agrees with that, but how to amend Act 550 has remained unresolved to this day.”
Domelevo suggested a practical solution which is allowing up to one week for declarations in cases where immediate compliance is challenging, such as for newly elected Speakers of Parliament.
“So, I think if we are to find a solution, I can agree that it is going to be very difficult for some positions, like the Speaker of Parliament for instance, to declare assets before taking office because the election is held around midnight, and he or she starts immediately.”
Source : www.kumasimail.com /Kwadwo Owusu
