Being honest, truthful in the fight against corruption
Corruption is one canker which is often associated with public officials. It is often assumed that public officials are able to amass wealth while in office through various illegal means to the detriment of the same people they are meant to serve and whose lives they are to improve.
It is against this background that the country found it fit to pass the Asset and Liabilities Act which compels public officials, once appointed, to declare their assets and liabilities, and file them with the Auditor-General.
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The rationale, among other things, behind that thinking is that once assets and liabilities of public officials are declared upon their assumption of office, such persons are then open to public scrutiny.
Under normal circumstances, the act is meant to hold the appointees in check. Unfortunately, however, this laudable thinking behind the act has not been achieved. This is because, the asset declaration forms, once filled, are kept in a safe in the Auditor-General’s office and not made public.
It is, therefore, not possible for the public to know what the public officers had before they came into office and what they added and subtracted while in service.
In short, it has rendered the concept lame and of no use because of many reasons, including the fact that the public is not able to know whether the public officials abused their office to add more assets or not.
The Daily Graphic, therefore, finds it refreshing, the commitments shown so far by the two leading political parties which have pledged their commitment to change the law to have the assets so declared, published.
In other jurisdictions, it is a common practice and that is one of the major ways of fighting corruption because the actors open themselves up to public scrutiny.
One important tool for identifying the legality of the assets of public officials is asset declaration and, therefore, it makes no sense to declare and have it hidden.
To us, this pledge should not be one that should be allowed to go down the drain for political expediency.
As a result, we must ensure as a nation that the asset declared can be verified at any time with the right values. We should not allow politicians or public officials to toy with the law, once passed, by tracking every process to ensure that we as a people are not taken for granted.
The lukewarm attitude usually exhibited around such serious issues should not be tolerated under these circumstances because of its importance to the country.
Our President was the first to show leadership by example when he assumed the reign of power but we also think that as the person who does the appointments, he must first demonstrate this commitment by being the first to open up for his appointees to follow.
There is no doubt in our minds that should this country be in the position to ensure this happens, it will be another feather in our cap as a country that is serious in fighting corruption and checking public officials from abusing their office at any given time.
Until then, we also want to sound a caution to public officials who use the names of their relatives and cronies to register their properties to desist from the practice and be honest and truthful to the people and the nation. Failure to do so should attract sanctions that will be punitive enough to deter others from doing same.