The Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) says it will post assets of government officials on its website.
During the fourth National Anticorruption Coalition conference at Sheraton Addis FEACC announced they would release registered assets of government officials.
Haregot Abreha, Director of the Ethics Service Coordination at FEACC, told Capital that the commission is ready to release the highly anticipated documents of public officials.
According to Haregot the federal commission will release the documents on its web site this upcoming fiscal year. “We will disclose the registered and updated (latest version) assets of 119,000 public officials and their associates,” he said.
Regional officials will also have their assets disclosed. This will be carried out by regional anti corruption commissions.
During his presentation the director discussed they face in getting the information to the public.
“It is obvious that there are individuals that do not want knowledge of their assets out in the open, they may give misinformation or come up with other ways to stall the procedure so we must continue to fight corruption.”
To verify the assets they will continue to work with the public and conduct investigations. He told Capital that they also need a larger facility.
“The only thing remaining is to copy and release the huge documents to the public, but we need an adequate facility to undertake the operation,” he underlined.
FEACC representatives say they have not had enough office space since they moved out of their old building located around the area commonly known as Lagar.
The Commission is currently housed in a building located behind Hilton Hotel on Tito Street. Officials told Capital that the organization is unable to properly manage its operation and file the documents of public officials because the facility is too small.
Last Novemeber the Commission moved to its new office after the newly established Government Housing Corporation, which owns the building, took possession of the previous building.
Ayelign Mulualem, Commissioner of FEACC, who took over the post in November, told Capital that his organization has expressed concern to the government including the Office of the Prime Minister and Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation (MoFEC).
“We have several documents related with asset disclosure and registration but we have no place to store them in,” he said.
Haregot expressed his hope that the government would provide them with a bigger space in the future.
Making the documents public was expected to begin in 2010 but the some of the Commission’s mandates were revoked during that time and it focused more on raising awareness about corruption.