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•According to a CCB official, departing public office holders must disclose their assets by May 29.
•Incoming govs receive CCB forms this month, including the president-elect, Tinubu, and Shettima.
The 44 ministers in the Federal Executive Council, including the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret. ), Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and others, will shortly begin disclosing their assets before their terms expire on May 29.
The required arrangements had been completed for the issuing of the assets forms to the departing officials and their replacements, according to Dr. Mustapha Musa, Special Advisor to the CCB Chairman on General Duties, who confirmed this to The PUNCH on Sunday.
Additionally, in accordance with the 1999 constitution, the outgoing presidential aides, 28 state governors and their cabinet members, National Assembly and state assembly members, and chairmen of local governments will all obtain the assets declaration forms from the Code of Conduct Bureau and submit them to the CCB.
This meets with a constitutional requirement that all public officials report their assets and liabilities both when they take office and when their terms are up.
The 28 incoming governors and their cabinet officials, the president-elect Bola Tinubu, the vice president-elect Kashim Shettima, and the state assembly members, however, have three months to submit their asset disclosure forms to the CCB.
Also, they must list all properties and assets they have acquired, whether they were bought domestically or abroad, together with the value of such assets in the local currency of the location of the property.
Asset Disclosure
The CCB chairman’s assistant clarified that the concerned officials had to receive the forms from the CCB office and report all of their assets, including cash, real estate, cars, shares, bonds, and other types of assets, as well as the sources of those assets.
They (officials) are supposed to reveal all of their assets at the exit, or the time of leaving office, according to Musa. The legislation declares that. Forms for declaring assets must be submitted after leaving the office; they cannot be submitted while you are still there.
Hence, it is at the point of entry and exit. The Constitution and Section 15 of the Code of Conduct Bureau Act both state as much. The same holds for individuals who will soon be in office, but they have three months to declare.
The SA said that the forms for declaring assets were accessible online and added that the bureau will soon digitize the disclosure procedure.
“The bureau is where the forms are supposed to be obtained by the officials; they can even do this online. Because the forms are online, we cannot stop distributing them, but very soon, we will stop doing so and ask people to submit their declarations online instead,” Musa said.
In response to the question of whether departing officials had been showing up for the forms, he stated, “That depends on the mindset but because the legislation states at the point of exit, if they pick it up now, they cannot submit it till they are about to leave the office. Even if they complete the forms now, they cannot submit them to us because they still have two months to go.
The official claimed that numerous former governors, former ministers, and other officials were being prosecuted for failing to declare all of their assets after leaving the government.
“We are prosecuting, and we are obtaining convictions,” he continued. We file thousands of lawsuits. Before the tribunal are hundreds of cases. Each day, we prosecute. The Constitution only gives the Code of Conduct Bureau the authority to bring legal action against public officials who violate the code of conduct.
Only the judiciary body at the tribunal has the authority to bring charges against public officials. So, the tribunal represents our best hope. Although I am unable to provide you with a number, there are plenty, including all corrupt public officials.
Musa asserted that the CCB has been educating public officials about the necessity of abiding by the law, emphasizing that the CCB was more concerned with guaranteeing compliance than with bringing cases against offenders.
“The main thing we do is make sure public officials follow the public officers’ code of conduct. We educate public officials in the areas where we focus on municipal, federal, state, and MDAs. They are the ones we are aiming for, not prosecution, but compliance. Yet, there is the ability to bring charges. He stated, “The tribunal is there.
An anonymous CCB officer revealed that the forms would start to be distributed before the middle of April or the beginning of May.
“We do start the distribution of form CCB1 before the conclusion of the term of office,” he continued, “since it is difficult to trace people who might vanish after leaving office.
This month, we’ll start distributing forms to the incoming (officials), who can complete them and return them before being sworn in. Most likely, the procedure will start in the middle of April or early May.
The rules posted on the CCB website state that failing to disclose assets can lead to removal from office, the vacation of the official seat in any legislative house, as applicable, imposition of a fine, disqualification from membership in a legislative house, and from holding any public office for not more than 10 years, and seizure and forfeiture of any property obtained through abuse or corruption of office.
According to the law, the aforementioned penalties shall not preclude the imposition of penalties under any other laws when the behavior in question also constitutes a criminal offense,” the statement read.
