Senegal asset declaration draft law attracts controversy
Controversy surrounds a significant draft law concerning asset declarations being debated in the Senegal National Assembly, according to Africanews on August 14th.
The debate, set to be held on August 18th, will likely focus on a controversial provision in the draft law, which exempts the president from declaring his assets at the end of his term.
Continuing on the Senegal government’s anti-corruption drive, the legislation widens the scope of asset declarations, now requiring public prosecutors, investigating judges, local authorities, auditors, and executives of public companies to disclose their assets.
Previously, the 2014 law related to this matter only encompassed senior officials such as the President of the Assembly and the Prime Minister managing over 1 billion CFA francs ($1.5 million).
However, the new legislation intends to lower the threshold to 500 million CFA franc ($760,000) for auditors and public budget managers.
Senegal’s incumbent president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, was elected on campaign promises to root out anti-corruption and entrenched forms of bad governance. Whilst this legislation somewhat addresses government matters around transparency, there are clear concerns that the president has not made himself accountable.
Doudou Wade from the Senegalese Democratic Party argues that the legislation is insufficient and stressed that outgoing presidents must be held accountable for declaring their assets.
Amadou Ba, the vice-president of the Pastef parliamentary group, the majority party in parliament, has defended the bill, highlighting that the Constitution only mandates asset declarations at the beginning of the term, and he asserted that the Constitution holds more weight than the new law.
However, this controversy has arisen alongside other fears that Faye and the government are forcibly recalibrating Senegal’s political sphere through the continuous detainment of opposition journalists and political figures.
Concerns about freedom of expression in one of Africa’s most stable democracies are becoming increasingly prevalent, with several Senegalese personalities being summoned by the police for criticising Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko.
President Faye’s anti-corruption campaign has reaped some results, but worries about transparency and accountability linger.
Africanews, Maghrebi.org
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