Daniel Yao Domelevo, the former Auditor-General has lamented that Public officers seem to love gifts too much but are paid to live within their means.
According to him, although aspects of Mahama’s code of conduct for his appointees are good some aspect needs to be looked at.
He asserted that putting an amount of gift that is supposed to be declared to ¢20,000 as a limit he thinks is a no no.
Domelevo further suggested that some aspects of the code of conduct be added to the Code of Conduct Bill that has already been prepared, and passed into law for it to be applied to successive governments not only President Mahama’s appointees.
Speaking on JOY FM’s PM Express Daniel Domelovo detailed, “I think we seem to like gifts too much. In fact, when you are employed in a public office, you are remunerated. So you are supposed to live with your salary, not gifts.”
“Creating these windows and putting an amount of ¢20,000 as a limit, I think, is a no no. As Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante said on the same show, at the World Bank where I worked, our threshold was $50. Not $100. And if you receive any gift above that, you surrender it. You keep only below $50.”
He added, “When I looked at the document, it is good. Some areas add value. But I wish they would take those good parts and add them to the Code of Conduct Bill that has already been prepared, and then pass it into law. That way it doesn’t apply only during Mahama’s administration.”
“So that it is not something which is going to guide public office holders only during Mahama’s administration. When another person takes office, he or she will say, ‘No, I don’t respect this. I’m also bringing mine.’ I don’t think we need that.”
Domelevo continued, “If you go to page 30 of the code, they talk about the declaration of assets and liabilities. They talk about jewellery a minimum of ¢5 million. That is a lot! Hey, I don’t even know if the house some of us stay in is worth ¢5 million. So for jewellery, that threshold is too high. It is not consistent with the law. Act 550 does not say anything like that. So I think they may have to review that and make it align with the law.”
Meanwhile, the Director of Policy Engagements and Partnerships at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Dr Kojo Pumpuni Asante has stated President John Dramani Mahama should have flatly rejected the two luxurious car gifts.
According to him, such high-profile gifts should have been rejected by the president and not donated to the state.
He added that the president has too much power to create conflict-of-interest scenarios that cannot be cured.
Speaking on PM Express on Joy News May 6, Dr Asante stated, “You don’t accept and then donate; you reject. These are high-value gifts, and we must discourage private individuals of influence from making such donations to the President. The President holds too much power to create conflict of interest scenarios that you can’t cure.”
“How are you going to determine whether the President is influenced or not in those kinds of scenarios?” he asked.
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