Mr Richard Quartey, Acting Auditor-General, said on Thursday that Assets Declaration Forms would
henceforth be enclosed in the appointment letters of all qualified public office holders.
This is in incompliance with Public Office Holders Declaration of Asset and Disqualification Act, Act 550.
The Acting Auditor-General made this known when he opened a four-day training workshop for qualified Audit Service staff in the Greater Accra Region on the effective administration of the Assets Declaration Forms.
The objective of the Assets Declaration regime is to ensure that all property and assets acquired by office holders were acquired legally.
Asset Declaration forms, which could be obtained from the Office of the Auditor-General, filled and returned to that Office, has now been
decentralized.
Mr Quartey said as the institution responsible for the administration of the forms, "we are duty bound to set a good example in compliance, hence
the need for this workshop".
The Acting Auditor-General noted that implementation of the Asset Declaration Form was being hampered by challenges such as low compliance, limited number of public officers required to declare their assets and inability of
some officials to fill the form properly.
He said in order to address those challenges, the Audit Service was collaborating with Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the Office the Attorney General, Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to draft a legislative instrument as recommended by Section 13 of Act 550.
Mr Richard A. Asiedu, Assistant Auditor-General who gave an overview of Act 550, said there were seven stages involved in the process.
He said the rationale for passing an Asset Declaration law was, among others, to fight corruption, to act as a code of conduct for public officers, curb conflict of interest, and prevent abuse of power by holders of public office as well protect public asset.
Mr Gallant Akorly, Assistant Auditor General In charge of the Legal Unit, in a group discussion, mentioned some of the assets to be declared as
lands, farms, concessions, jewellery, business interest, securities and bonds, among others.