Following The Fourth Estate's investigation into parliamentary defaulters, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the Deputy Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for Effutu, disclosed his assets.
Afenyo Markin reported his assets on September 13, 2022, a day after it was discovered that 10 out of the 13 leaders of parliament had not registered their holdings, according to official receipts from the Ghana Audit Service.
The MP clarified that his first misinterpretation of the legislation, rather than a purposeful lack of declaration, was to blame.
The Deputy Majority Leader called the Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Estate hours before making his declaration to have his side of the story removed because, he claimed, he had already disclosed his assets.
He also disputed the actions taken by The Fourth Estate to get confirmation from him that he disclosed his holdings prior to the report's publication.
The MP denied receiving any phone call, WhatsApp message, or text message from the reporter after The Fourth Estate presented evidence of multiple attempts to persuade him to confirm or deny it. He said that one of the three numbers was not his, but the other two, to which The Fourth Estate sent him the SMS messages, were no longer in use.
He claimed to have stopped using one of the numbers since June 2022, but it was the same number that appeared on the Ghana Audit Service receipt that was generated after he disclosed his assets in September 2022.
When his term as a member of the 7th Parliament came to an end in 2020, Mr. Afenyo-Markin had disclosed his assets in 2017, but he had not done so by that time. Additionally, after taking office as a member of the 8th Parliament and taking over as the head of the majority side of the house, he neglected to disclose his assets.
According to his interpretation of the legislation, he didn't have to declare again until he really left the legislature after declaring in 2017.
However, the Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, stated to Mr. Afenyo-Markin on a conference call with the Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Estate, Manasseh Azure Awuni, that a member of parliament had to declare at the start and end of the four-year period when parliament was dissolved. One is required to declare once more after being re-elected.
The following day, Mr. Afenyo Markin initiated action to report his assets and debts.
Since the report, none of the other 10 parliamentary leaders have contacted me. Additionally, it is unclear if they are making efforts to declare or not.
Act 550, Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification), requires public officers, including members of parliament, to disclose their assets within their first six months in office and at the latest six months after the dissolution of the legislature.
Background
In accordance with the right to information (RTI) law, the Fourth Estate wrote to the Audit Service on March 4, 2022, requesting details on public office holders who had disclosed their assets between January 2013 and 2022.
On May 17, 2022, the Audit Service replied with the information. According to the data, many MPs—including most of their leaders—had disregarded the Asset Declaration Act.
Only three of the 13 leaders had disclosed their assets as required by the asset disclosure statute. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker, Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, and Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, the Minority Chief Whip are the three.
The three are all opposition National Democratic Congress members (NDC).
