Ghana’s Auditor-General has explained that the publication of assets declared by public officials can only be done on the directions of a Court of law.

In a statement issued in Accra, the Auditor-General’s Department made it clear that the Department is “ only a custodian of the asset declaration and can not divulge information on them unless directed by a competent Court of law to do so.”

Such information the statement noted could also be divulged on the orders of a Commission of Enquiry or an investigator appointed by the Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, CHRAJ.

The statement referred to requests from a section of the Ghanaian Media and the Public, regarding the compliance with the law.

The statement explained that the rationale for the call on public officers to declare their assets and liabilities seems defeated if it is intended to offer the public an opportunity to ascertain the genuineness or otherwise of their acquisition to be able to strike a difference between assets and liabilities declared before and after assumption of duty.