Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption
Commission (ACC) Ady Macauley, recently disclosed that over 20,000 public officials have
refused to declare their assets as stipulated in the ACC Act of 2008.
was speaking at an event organised
by the commission at Santano House in Freetown to update civil society
organisations and the media about the operations of the country’s anti-graft
agency in the fight against corruption.
“Asset
declaration is a huge challenge for us as a commission and I can say that not
every public official has complied with the provision in the Act to declare
their asset,” he said.
Section 119(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 states that
every public officer shall within three months of becoming a public officer
deposit with the commission a sworn declaration of his income, assets and
liabilities and thereafter not later than 31st March in each succeeding year
that he is a public officer, he shall deposit further declarations of his
income, assets and liabilities.
According to the ACC Commissioner, the Act makes provision for
defaulters to be punished, but stressed that they have many ways to force
people to comply and declare their assets.
“The commission would recommend how institutions should ensure
that asset declaration forms are submitted to the ACC by every official by 31st
March and failing which, we will recommend that the salaries of defaulters
should be withheld,” he noted.
Mr. Macauley emphasised the need for public
officials to declare their assets as it help members of the public to know what
a public official owns, in order to avoid the issue of unexplained wealth and
corrupt acquisition of wealth.
No comments:
Post a Comment