A former presidential staffer and former local government coordinator, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, says the asset declaration rule is a waste of time.<\/p>\n
Speaking on\u00a0Newsfile<\/em>\u00a0on JoyNews on Saturday, May 10, he called for the law to be either scrapped or reformed entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cMy view on asset declaration has always been that we should stop wasting our time discussing it,\u201d the spokesperson for Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt should just be scrapped, or we should rather spend the time advocating for the reform, because it\u2019s a complete waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Aboagye revealed that he has declared his assets twice. But he said the process is flawed and meaningless.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause as I sit here, I\u2019ve declared my assets twice, and so what? What I put in there, nobody knows,\u201d he said. \u201cThe real issue is, what do we intend to achieve with asset declaration?\u201d<\/p>\n He challenged those praising President Mahama for publishing his asset declaration.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat President John Mahama has done is nothing new,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He insisted that President Akufo-Addo enforced the requirement too, but without fanfare.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had the whip except that maybe he didn\u2019t put cameras on what he was doing,\u201d Aboagye added.<\/p>\n He recalled coordinating the asset declarations of all Municipal, Metropolitan, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) under Akufo-Addo\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n \u201cI, for instance, had to engage each of the 261 MMDCEs,\u201d he said. \u201cNot just ask whether they\u2019ve done it, but collect the receipts as proof.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, the process was systematic and supervised from the top.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Auditor General gives you a scanned copy of the receipt, which I take and forward to Ekow [Essuman],\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cNana Akufo-Addo actually insisted on seeing your receipts. It was a Cabinet decision.\u201d<\/p>\n But despite the effort, Aboagye said the current system is broken.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current form is outmoded, it is of no use and a complete waste of time,\u201d he stressed. \u201cThe first time I picked the form, I kept it on my desk for three weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n He described the form as overly complex. \u201cIt\u2019s either you are under-declaring or you are over-declaring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Ghana, quantifying the asset itself is a chore.\u201d He added that the structure of the form makes it hard to complete. \u201cIt\u2019s a big form and you have to fold it like three times before you can open.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the content of the form is often irrelevant. \u201cSome of them do not necessarily apply to our context,\u201d he argued. \u201cI think it should be simplified.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Aboagye also questioned the secrecy around the process.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t 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\u2019t open it, drops it into a never-opened box,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil some legal matter comes up and you are putting a gun to my head, it\u2019s a waste of my time, honestly speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n He warned that even if assets are declared, there is no system to track changes.<\/p>\n \u201cIf 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?\u201d he asked. \u201cWho is receiving that update?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A former presidential staffer and former local government coordinator, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, says the asset declaration rule is a waste of time. Speaking on\u00a0Newsfile\u00a0on JoyNews on Saturday, May 10, he called for the law to be either scrapped or reformed entirely. \u201cMy view on asset declaration has always been that we should stop wasting our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":10884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[3485,3486],"class_list":["post-10883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-asset-declaration-law","tag-dennis-miracles-aboagye"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10885,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10883\/revisions\/10885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}