Senegal Expands Asset Declaration Law

Senegal’s President has proposed expanding the country’s asset declaration law for high-ranking officials to improve transparency, while critics highlight that he remains exempt, as his administration pursues corruption cases against former ministers.

Senegal’s President has vowed to restore financial accountability in the wake of billions of dollars in hidden debt left by his predecessor, unveiling a bill to expand the country’s 2014 asset declaration law for high-ranking officials.

Under the proposed amendment, prosecutors, judges, local authorities, auditors, and directors of public companies will be required to declare their assets both at the start and end of their tenure. Additionally, the reporting threshold for public budget managers will be reduced from 1 billion CFA francs to 500 million CFA francs (€760,000), a move aimed at increasing transparency across key sectors of governance.

Despite the reforms, critics have pointed out that the legislation exempts the President from mandatory asset declarations, a decision opposition leaders have described as a serious violation of transparency principles. Doudou Wade of the Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) argued that “the first condition of transparency is that the President of the Republic is subject to these requirements.”

Defending the proposal, ruling party MP Amadou Ba stated that the Constitution already obliges the President to declare assets at the beginning of the term, asserting that this constitutional requirement supersedes ordinary law. “This goes beyond the hierarchy of norms and constitutes a special law of exception,” Ba wrote on his Facebook profile.

President’s administration has also moved aggressively against alleged corruption in the previous government. Five former ministers have been arrested, including Macky Sall’s brother-in-law, Amadou Mansour Faye, who faces charges of embezzling more than $4.6 million in public funds.

The National Assembly is scheduled to vote on the bill on 18 August, marking a critical step in the government’s broader efforts to reinforce transparency and accountability in public service.

Senegal’s latest move comes in the wake of a public audit in February 2024 that revealed the previous administration had significantly understated the country’s deficits, pushing the end-of-2023 debt ratio to nearly 100 per cent of GDP, up from the previously reported 74 per cent. The revelations prompted the International Monetary Fund to freeze disbursements and contributed to a downgrade of Senegal’s credit rating to B minus.