The Attorney-General (AG), Godfred Yeboah Dame, is confident a new Conduct of Public Officers Bill to be presented to Parliament will boost the fight against corruption.
This bill, he explains, is to strengthen the role of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice to investigate various matters involving public officers.
This includes issues of conflict of interest, non-declaration of assets, among others.
“The bill will be a shot in the arm of the fight against corruption. Currently, legislation on corruption in Ghana is inadequate to deal extensively with Public Office accountability,” Mr Dame told stakeholders forum deliberating on the Bill.
The Bill was laid in the previous Parliament but was not passed before the expiration of its term on January 7, 2021.
The AG’s office is, therefore, commencing the entire process yet again with the hope that it will eventually receive Parliamentary Approval.
The Bill seeks to regulate how public officers conduct themselves to ensure their activities are in the interest of the nation.
This will provide guidelines that prospective public officials must follow before, during and after holding public office aside making changes to the current asset declaration regime.
A key change set to be made related to the luxury of a six-month timeline that the current law allows public officers to declare assets. This will be scrapped.