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Assets bill must include all
By
Our Reporter - 01-11-2002 |
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The draft bill to enforce declaration of assets by the President, MPs, parastatals’ top brass and civil servants from grade P5 up, has not only come late but needs close scrutiny before it is turned into law during the next sitting of Parliament.
Declaration of assets is a vital deterrent encompassed in laws that check corruption and dubious accumulation of wealth among people entrusted to run the country’s finances. It is surprising, therefore, that it has taken Parliament over eight years to consider ironing out deficiencies in this law. God knows how much has been siphoned from the country’s coffers in that period.
Yes, we welcome the suggestions that there should be tough penalties for those individuals who will choose to ignore calls to declare how much they are worth. But more importantly, there should also be measures to check how those who declare assets increase their wealth.
What has happened so far is that people who were comfortably rubbing shoulders with paupers at the outset of multiparty democracy in 1994 are displaying affluence incompatible with their earnings. This is true although they have not invested in lucrative enterprises to warrant such changes in fortunes.
Stories of rugs to riches are no longer legends in our society because people do not have to explain how they acquire excess property. And they have done so with impunity. Examples are inexhaustible.
The new law should make it incumbent upon those instant millionaires to prove their innocence. There is no reason why the nation should be gullible and blindly trust that our rulers are above board. Not with the knowledge that one-third of the country’s scarce revenue is lost annually. |
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