CDC move to tighten govt asset, tax declarations

THE CONSTITUTION Drafting Committee (CDC) yesterday inserted an article that requires commissioners of independent organisation to reveal their assets publicly.

The commissioners would be required to submit all relevant documents and evidence revealing their assets and tax payments to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and publicise them under the new constitution. They had not been under such a legal obligation in previous charters.

Independent organisations include the Constitutional Court, the Election Commission, the NACC itself, and others.

Public-office holders required to submit their asset documents and evidence for tax payment are the prime minister, cabinet members, independent organisations’ commissioners, members of Parliament, senators, other government officials and government office holders, members of local administrations and other public servants as stated by law.

However, only the prime minister, cabinet members, independent-organisation commissioners and MPs would be obligated to declare their assets publicly immediately. Other public-office holders such as local-administration members would only have to reveal their assets where the declaration would be useful information for the court’s consideration and demanded by the court, or stakeholders, or the Office of the Auditor-General or other organisations as stated by the law.

The powerful independent organisations have been targeted previously for reform by the CDC. In past weeks, charter drafters agreed to redesign the selection framework of the committees charged with appointing these organisations’ members. They also shuffled some of their key responsibilities. For example, the power to deliberate and rule over electoral-fraud cases has been shifted from the Election Commission to the Court of Appeals.

After agreeing on the asset declaration in the morning session, charter drafters then began discussing the next article on activities of public-office holders risking conflicts of interest.

Most parts under this article were largely based on the 1997 and 2007 Constitutions, with only slight modification and alterations.

The article stated that public-office holders and government officials must not act in a manner that might lead to any conflict of interest between themselves and the public.

Those acts include, first, designing policy or proposing bills that would benefit businesses in which officials themselves, their spouses, children or parents hold an interest; second, giving preferential treatment to those with whom they have personal relationships, in such a manner that they benefit from it.

Charter drafters also inserted a clause that specifically referred to the code of conduct of the prime minister and cabinet members under this section.

It stated that the PM and cabinet members must not hold positions within any firms, state enterprises, or profit-oriented organisations. They also must not hold any positions in other public organisations, or receive any benefits from the organisations stated above.