Dignitaries' wealth statements start to be taken offline

Starting this week, public institutions will begin to remove the wealth statements of dignitaries and of civil servants from their Internet websites following a decision of the Constitutional Court (CC) whereby the publishing of wealth statements infringes on “the right to private life”.

The submission of wealth statements will continue as usual, until 15th of June of every year, but they will no longer be published. This is basically a return to 1996, when the first statements of dignitaries started to be submitted, but were kept under lock and key.

Aside from the controversy sparked by the Court’s decision, over “who would have a vested interest in keeping wealth ‘hidden'”, whether it is normal or not for the principle of the right to private life to apply to dignitaries when wealth acquired during the term in office is at stake, it is worthy of note that none of the political bigwigs have paid a price for oversights in their wealth statements.