08 Jul 2021

Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Kabo Morwaeng has tabled, before Parliament, a Bill that seeks to amend and close loopholes in the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Act.

Presenting the Declaration of Assets and Liabilities (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2020 (Bill No. 25 of 2020) in Parliament on July 7, Mr Morwaeng acknowledged the loopholes in the current Act, which became effective on August 28, 2019.

The act makes provision for the declaration of assets and liabilities of certain categories of persons for the purpose of preventing and detecting corruption, money laundering and the acquisition of property from proceeds of crime.

Conversely, Mr Morwaeng said the proposed amendment was to ensure certainty that all those to whom the act applies were listed under Section 3 of the Act.

Once amended, he added that the Act would also make it obligatory for those in the disciplined forces to declare from the rank equivalent to deputy director, which in the case of the army is Lieutenant Colonel.

As such, Mr Morwaeng said the Bill sought to ensure that there was clarity regarding persons who submitted their declarations to the Permanent Secretary to the President.

He underscored the need to make it a legal requirement that all those involved in procurement were made to declare, given that government continued to experience corruption relating to the award of public tenders. 

As such, application of the Act to procurement officers was one way through which government sought to fight corruption.

In addition, Minister Morwaeng observed that Section 8 (2) of the Act, which makes failure to declare within 60 days from date of assumption of office a criminal offence, would be amended because it was punitive. 

Thus the proposed amendment will make it a criminal offence only where there is failure to declare after issuance of a Notice by the Director General under Section 16 of the Act.

Mr Morwaeng stated that the Bill further proposed to increase declaration intervals to five years instead of 24 months.

“It has been realised that in terms of best practice, declarations are to be made regularly. 

Otherwise, we may not succeed in fighting corruption as a country. 

I therefore intend to move an amendment at Committee Stage to retain the 24 months interval for submission of declarations,” he said.

He also noted that the Bill sought to provide for mayors and local authorities chairpersons to declare to the minister responsible for local government. 

On the other hand, the director general of the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity and that of Corruption and Economic Crime will now be required to declare to the President, and not to the presidential affairs minister.

Further, Mr Morwaeng indicated that penalties for using information contained in declarations for purposes other than those intended by the Act would be aligned such that fines for all offences would not exceed P500 000 while imprisonment terms would not exceed 10 years.

 

Meanwhile, he said the director general’s office had received 747 declaration forms out of which 38 were from Members of Parliament. ENDS