President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to introduce a divestiture bill that will require parliamentary approval before any public property can be sold.
The measure is intended to stop the rampant sale of government assets and prevent one government from mortgaging public property without the consent of the people’s representatives.
Addressing the Ghanaian community in Lusaka, Zambia, President Mahama stated that the bill will cover public lands, government factories, and all other public assets.
“If you want to sell public property, you would need the approval of the representatives of the people,” President Mahama stated.
He explained that under the proposed law, any public land processing will not be processed at the Lands Commission unless it is ratified in Parliament.
President Mahama emphasized that the bill will protect public property and ensure that before anyone can auction property, sell off public land, or sell off a government factory, they must first go to the representatives of the people.
“If they think that it is fair, they will approve it. If they think it’s not fair, they don’t approve it. And if they don’t approve it, then it can’t happen,” he said.
He noted that he has asked the Attorney General to work on the legislation.
President Mahama also disclosed that the government is introducing blockchain technology to digitize the records of the land registry.
He said this will help address issues of double sales and fraudulent land transactions.
He explained that once the records are digitized, anyone wanting to buy land can go to the lands registry and check the record of the land to see who currently owns it.
“They will have the record of the land from where it has passed to who and who owns it currently. And then when you’re dealing with that person, you know that legally you are dealing with the right person,” President Mahama stated.
According to him, the issue with land administration involves not just the registering of title and processing of land documents, but also the problem of land belonging to families and chiefs being double-sold to people.
He noted that many people who buy land do not go back to the Lands Commission to make a search to find out whether the person selling the land to them is the real owner.
President Mahama further disclosed that a committee he set up has presented its report and the government has canceled several leases that had not been processed yet.
He stated that these were public lands that were distributed and looted, with people buying government land at 150,000 cedis and reselling the same plot for $2 million.
“These are lands in prime areas. And yet, if you look at the value that they are giving and how much people buy them for and turn around and resell them, it just doesn’t make sense at all,” he said.
President Mahama stated that the committee has mapped out the status of public lands not only in Accra but in all the regions.
He explained that in cases where people have finished building and are living in their houses, it would be difficult to demolish the structures and take the land back. In such cases, he said, the government is asking them to pay the true value of the land.
However, for leases that were in the process of being done at the time his administration came to power, President Mahama stated that the government has halted the process and is taking those lands back.
He emphasized that when those lands are recovered, the government must find a proper way of ensuring that another group will not come and start selling them again, hence the need for the divestiture bill.