'A complete waste of time' - Miracles Aboagye criticises Asset Declaration law

Dennis Miracles Aboagye, a former presidential staffer, criticizes the asset declaration rule. He believes it is a waste of time.

On May 10, he spoke on Newsfile on JoyNews. He called for the law to be scrapped or reformed.

Aboagye stated, “We should stop wasting our time discussing it.” He is the spokesperson for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia's campaign.

He has declared his assets twice but finds the process flawed. “What I put in there, nobody knows,” he said.

He questioned the purpose of asset declaration. Aboagye challenged those praising President Mahama for publishing his assets.

“What President John Mahama has done is nothing new,” he said. He noted that President Akufo-Addo enforced the requirement too.

“He had the whip but didn’t publicize it,” Aboagye added. He coordinated asset declarations for all Municipal and District Chief Executives under Akufo-Addo’s first term.

“I engaged each of the 261 MMDCEs,” he explained. “I collected receipts as proof.”

The process was systematic and supervised from above. The Auditor General provided scanned copies of receipts to him.

“Nana Akufo-Addo insisted on seeing your receipts,” he said. “It was a Cabinet decision.”

Despite these efforts, Aboagye believes the system is broken. “The current form is outmoded and useless,” he stressed.

He described how he kept the form on his desk for three weeks before filling it out. The form is overly complex, leading to confusion about declaring assets accurately.

“In Ghana, quantifying assets is a chore,” he added. The structure makes it hard to complete; it's large and cumbersome.

He criticized irrelevant content in the form as well. “Some sections do not apply to our context,” he argued, calling for simplification.

Aboagye also questioned why the process remains secretive.

“I submit my declaration in an envelope that no one opens," he said. "It goes into a box that never gets opened."

He feels this process wastes time unless legal issues arise later on.

Aboagye warned that even if assets are declared, there’s no tracking system for changes over time.

“If I declare an asset in January 2025 and sell it by September 2025, how do I update?” he asked. “Who receives that update?”