A former presidential staffer and former local government coordinator, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, says the asset declaration rule is a waste of time.
Speaking on Newsfile on JoyNews on Saturday, May 10, he called for the law to be either scrapped or reformed entirely.
“My view on asset declaration has always been that we should stop wasting our time discussing it,” the spokesperson for Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign said.
“It should just be scrapped, or we should rather spend the time advocating for the reform, because it’s a complete waste of time.”
Mr Aboagye revealed that he has declared his assets twice. But he said the process is flawed and meaningless.
“Because as I sit here, I’ve declared my assets twice, and so what? What I put in there, nobody knows,” he said. “The real issue is, what do we intend to achieve with asset declaration?”
He challenged those praising President Mahama for publishing his asset declaration.
“What President John Mahama has done is nothing new,” he said.
He insisted that President Akufo-Addo enforced the requirement too, but without fanfare.
“He had the whip except that maybe he didn’t put cameras on what he was doing,” Aboagye added.
He recalled coordinating the asset declarations of all Municipal, Metropolitan, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) under Akufo-Addo’s first term.
“I, for instance, had to engage each of the 261 MMDCEs,” he said. “Not just ask whether they’ve done it, but collect the receipts as proof.”
According to him, the process was systematic and supervised from the top.
“The Auditor General gives you a scanned copy of the receipt, which I take and forward to Ekow [Essuman],” he explained.
“Nana Akufo-Addo actually insisted on seeing your receipts. It was a Cabinet decision.”
But despite the effort, Aboagye said the current system is broken.
“The current form is outmoded, it is of no use and a complete waste of time,” he stressed. “The first time I picked the form, I kept it on my desk for three weeks.”
He described the form as overly complex. “It’s either you are under-declaring or you are over-declaring,” he said.
“In Ghana, quantifying the asset itself is a chore.” He added that the structure of the form makes it hard to complete. “It’s a big form and you have to fold it like three times before you can open.”
He said the content of the form is often irrelevant. “Some of them do not necessarily apply to our context,” he argued. “I think it should be simplified.”
Mr Aboagye also questioned the secrecy around the process.
“I don’t know why something that you ask me to do, I do it, I put it in an envelope, I take it to somebody who doesn’t open it, drops it into a never-opened box,” he said.
“Until some legal matter comes up and you are putting a gun to my head, it’s a waste of my time, honestly speaking.”
He warned that even if assets are declared, there is no system to track changes.
“If I declare it in January 2025, and I dispose of one of the assets I have declared in September 2025, how do I update it?” he asked. “Who is receiving that update?”
