IMANI Launches Campaign to Track Wealth of Public Officials Using RTI Act

Policy think tank IMANI Center for Policy & Education has launched a new transparency campaign aimed at tracking the wealth accumulation of Ghana’s public officials through the use of the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989).

Announcing the initiative, the President of IMANI, Franklin Cudjoe, said the campaign seeks to challenge the long-standing practice where asset declarations submitted by public officials are kept in sealed envelopes by the Auditor-General of Ghana, making them largely inaccessible to the public.

“Ghana’s asset declarations have been filed in sealed envelopes for 30 years. In that form, they might as well not exist,” Mr. Cudjoe said.

Under Article 286 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, public officials are required to declare their assets upon entering office, every four years, and upon leaving office. However, for more than three decades, these declarations have remained hidden from public scrutiny.

IMANI argues that neither the Constitution nor the Right to Information Act explicitly requires such secrecy.

The campaign will begin with RTI requests targeting the asset declarations of Cecilia Abena Dapaah and Mohammed Baba Jamal Ahmed.

According to the organisation, the two cases are intended to serve as test cases to trigger a legal ruling on the lawfulness of the “sealed envelope” practice.

The strategy will proceed in stages, starting with RTI applications to the Auditor-General, followed by an internal review and appeal to the Right to Information Commission. If necessary, the process will proceed to judicial review and a possible constitutional challenge.

IMANI says its ultimate goal is to establish a transparent asset declaration system that allows citizens to monitor changes in the wealth of public officials over time.