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Enforce declaration of wealth by public officers
Wealth declaration by public servants has over the years become a ritual that has failed to realise the key objective of enhancing transparency. Done properly, it is an effective means of fighting the rampant corruption in the government ministries and departments, agencies and public organisations.
This failure makes a mockery of an effort that can yield the desired results. Public servants are among the many Kenyans who have become filthily rich through dubious means and this can be easily detected by enforcing wealth declarations.
Now, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has intervened to ensure that the declarations are done. Public officers who fail to make their initial declaration of wealth will not be entered into the payroll system and will also not get promoted.
The disclosure enables the authorities to know what each new civil servant owns. If afterwards, they acquire suspect assets or funds, they can then be taken to task to establish whether these were cleanly obtained.
According to the PSC, some 10,352 of the 13, 354 new staff hired by State entities in the year to June 2023 did not declare their initial statements of income, assets and liabilities, as required by the law. Only 3,002 or 22.5 per cent of the new officers complied. The accounting officers of the concerned organisations have been given until March to ensure that this is done.
This is in compliance with the Leadership and Integrity Act, 2012. The biggest offenders are in the ministries and departments, public universities, TVETs, constitutional commissions and independent offices, statutory commissions and authorities.
Public officers are required by law to declare their income, assets and liabilities and those of their spouses and children under the age of 18 within 30 days of joining, every two years and within 30 days of exiting the service.
The declaration is meant to promote ethics and integrity and enhance good governance, transparency and accountability. To curb illicit enrichment and the unexplained wealth of some public officers, the ongoing investigations should be speeded up and the declaration requirement strictly enforced.
