<<Print>>

The passage of Act 550, which is the Public Officers Qualifications and Disqualification Asset Declaration Act, was a shoddy job done by parliament, the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Joseph Whittal, has said.

He said that the Act, in its current form, creates a situation where public officeholders are separated from the people they are supposed to be accountable to, a report by 3news.com has said.

“You have asset declarations as one of the codes of conduct that the constitution has made provisions for, we will have a conflict of interest and also the importance of oath swearing and its effect. if you look at, since the 1992 Constitution came, Chapter 24 only gave a skeletal outline of what is required to be done.

“The nearest we came to is passing Act 550 which is the Public Officers Qualifications and Disqualification Asset Declaration Act. That I think was a shoddy job done by parliament, with all respect to Parliament, it was a shoddy job at that time. If you look at what should be in asset declaration law, what is provided there it is as if we are taking public service as a process we want to hide public servants from the people they are supposed to serve,” he is reported to have said.

Issues of asset declaration have recently resurrected following reports surrounding the prosecution of the former Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah, on corruption-related matters.

This was after news broke a few months ago that some helps in her house had stolen monies up to the tune of $1 million, among others.

The case is currently being investigated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).