Citizens must question unexplained wealth of public officials — Lecturer

Kwadwo Addo Tuffour, Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Coast, has charged Ghanaians to question unexplained wealth of public officials.

The Lecturer said although legally, one had the right to create wealth, citizens should question the source of wealth of public servants whose wealth did not match their official renumeration.

Tuffour was speaking at a Zoom forum organised by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to commemorate its 30th anniversary celebration.

The forum sought to explore how anti-graft institutions, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the public can make public servants and institutions more accountable.

Tuffour stated that this was one of the ways which the public could hold public officials and institutions accountable as stipulated by the constitution, 1992, saying that that the constitution also mandated public institutions to render accountability to the citizens but lamented that, most of them have refused to do so.

He said in such situations, it behooved on the public to demand for it if the institutions were not forthcoming with the information.

Mr Philip Ntaah, Principal, Enchi College of Education, said all activities of public institutions must be monitored and compared to set standards.

He also suggested that CSOs should report on findings made on the institutions to a wider audience. “When they get to know that the public is going to scrutise their work, they will sit up.”

He, however, noted that the above measures would not materialise if the barriers to demanding accountability were not removed.

He stated that one of the factors that prevented CSOs and the public from demanding accountability was changes in law.

He called for the involvement of CSOs in the making of regulatory laws of public institutions to enable them to monitor the compliance level of those institutions.

He called on government resource functioning CSOs to enhance their monitoring role and advised politicians to desist from harassing CSOs.

Hinged on the theme: ‘CHRAJ at 30: Promoting and Protecting Human Rights and Ensuring Transparency and Accountable public service delivery’, it also seeks to strengthen stakeholder partnership at various levels and boost local participation in the operations of the Commission.