‘Declare and then what?’ – Miracles Aboagye attacks asset declaration system

A former presidential staffer, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, says it’s time to stop pretending asset declaration in its current form matters. He believes it is broken, outdated, and needs reform.

“What do we intend to achieve with asset declaration?” the former local government coordinator in Akufo-Addo’s era asked.

“Because as I sit here, I’ve declared my assets twice—and so what? What I put in there, nobody knows.”

Speaking on Newsfile, he didn’t just question the system. He said it’s time to either scrap it or overhaul it completely.

“We should stop wasting our time discussing it and telling people to go and declare it in this current form,” he 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, who served as a local government policy lead at the Presidency, says even President Akufo-Addo made asset declaration mandatory. It just wasn’t televised.

“He had the whip, except that maybe he didn’t put cameras on what he was doing,” he explained.

“I recall correctly, I coordinated the receipts for all MMDCEs across the country, and that was the rule.”

According to him, the entire process was structured and enforced. “There were coordinators,” he said.

“Ekow Essuman was the anchor at the presidency, and he made sure that you had to do it. I, for instance, had to engage each of the 261 MMDCEs and not just ask whether they’ve done it, but collect the receipts as proof.”

He said it went all the way to the Cabinet.

“It was a Cabinet decision, which was passed down to all appointees. The former Chief of Staff used to call me to ask me, The other 10 people left, when are they bringing theirs?”

But even then, he said, the entire process was deeply flawed.

“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, because there are several challenges with it.”

He described the form as clunky and difficult to use. “It’s a big form and you have to fold it like three times before you can open it,” he said.

“The content in there, some of them do not necessarily apply to our context, the kind of information that are being required and all of that. I think it should be simplified.”

But he wasn’t done. He also criticised how the completed forms are treated.

“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 until some legal matter comes up and you are putting a gun to my head,” he said. “It’s a waste of my time, honestly speaking.”

He said the lack of an update mechanism makes the whole idea pointless.

“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? Who is receiving that update?”

For him, the debate over who has declared what is missing the point.

“What President Mahama has done is nothing new,” he said. “I have declared my assets twice, and in Nana Akufo-Addo’s government, he did whip his appointees too.”

But in the end, Mr Aboagye says Ghanaians should stop acting like this is progress. “Maybe the only difference here is that there are cameras on it,” he said. “And for people seeing that it is being done.”

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