The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) push to make the wealth of public servants public is welcomed.
Wealth disclosures for reasons of fighting corruption can only work if they are made public and structures established to verify the declared riches.
At present, public officers are expected to declare their wealth every two years, but the information contained in the wealth declaration forms remains confidential and can only be accessed by those in pursuit of public interest.
This model has clearly failed to work based on corruption files before State agencies involving influential top public servants.
A number of top public servants are fighting asset freezes and seizures after investigations revealed secret bank accounts, cars, and apartments that could not match their incomes.
This is a pointer that some civil servants fail to make full disclosures in the wealth declaration forms. It also shows that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is missing an opportunity to use the public as whistleblowers.
Whistle blowing can only work if the public are empowered with information through a window to access the wealth declaration database.
We support the IMF in pushing for review of two set of laws that are weak in making the asset disclosures an effective tool in the fight against graft.
The fund has flagged inadequacies in the proposed laws, arguing that there are gaps in publicity of the declared assets and deficient models to test the accuracy of the properties.
The State must review the two laws and offer the regulations power to combat corruption.
Parliament has severally failed to approve proposed laws that sought to remove restrictions on Kenyans seeking to access information on income, assets and liabilities of persons holding public office as part of efforts to fight corruption.
Lawmakers must keep the country first and support the IMF recommendations.
It’s only through effective laws that taxpayers would have comfort that public servants who pilfer State resources can be nabbed.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
