On February 18, 2025, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama publicly submitted his asset declaration forms to the Auditor-General.
“I have always maintained that while it is all well and good to punish corruption, a more effective way of addressing the canker is preventing it from occurring in the first place,” President Mahama said at a media event.
“I take the declaration of assets very seriously and expect full compliance from them,” he added.
President Mahama instructed all his appointees to declare their assets by March 31, 2025, with consequences, including removal from office, for non-compliance.
As of the publication of the article, there have been no official updates from the presidency or its ministries about the declaration of their assets.
But if the government officially declares that they have submitted their assets to the Auditor General, those assets should also be declared to the public.
Current Limitations
According to Article 286 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and the Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act, 1998 (Act 550), public office holders—including the president, ministers, and judges—must declare their assets, income, and liabilities to the Auditor-General upon taking office, every four years, and at term’s end.
The process of this, however, is currently opaque. The Constitution prohibits public disclosure unless a court, commission of inquiry, or the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) demands it.
The current Auditor General, Johnson Akuamoah-Asiedu, also highlighted some challenges when it comes to the verification of information by his office of asset declarations.
“If you say you have 10 bank accounts and you bring it to us, how are we to be sure that indeed it is only 10 bank accounts that you have? If you say you have two buildings, what can we do to ensure that it is exactly the two buildings that you have?” he said.
Mr Akuamoah-Asiedu supports the idea of publishing assets declarations, both when officials submit them and when they leave office, to ensure transparency and accountability.
“If you submit your assets and declaration forms, you should be able to publish it freely. And the time that you are leaving office too, we’ll publish it to see the changes that have happened ever since you started,” he stated.
At the moment, the Auditor-General has limited power to sanction officials who fail to properly declare their assets. They can only refer cases to CHRAJ, Economic and Organised Crime (EOCO), or the Special Prosecutor for investigation.
Why Public Disclosure Matters
In March 2025, the former Director-General of the National Signals Bureau (NSB), Kwabena Adu Boahene, was arrested by officials from the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).
In a news conference, the Attorney General alleged that Mr Boahene embezzled money from a project contract and had acquired multiple assets, including 27 houses in Accra.
Mr. Boahene was appointed to the role of Director General of NSB in 2018 but had not publicly declared his assets after assuming the role.
His case is currently under investigation by the Attorney General.
If his assets had been publicly known to the public and civil service organisations, more scrutiny and monitoring could have been applied, especially by the Auditor General and media organisations.
The Way Forward
A change in the law could be the best way of making public officials disclose their assets publicly. There are examples that Ghana could adopt.
South Africa’s dual-register approach—public for key assets, confidential for liabilities—could be a blueprint for future declarations.
Ghanaians should have the right to know if their leaders’ wealth aligns with their salaries.
Legal reform to mandate public disclosure, paired with robust enforcement, could transform asset declarations from a bureaucratic ritual into a corruption-fighting tool.