Governance expert Prof. Enoch Opoku Antwi says lifestyle auditing must be approached with caution due to the difficulty in detecting hidden forms of wealth acquisition among public officials.
He explained that the concept of lifestyle auditing is often misunderstood, as people can invest illicit earnings in areas that are not immediately visible.
“Somebody can invest the money in trade, investment, farming, borrowing in the community, flashy cars or buildings. Which one are you going to assume is corrupt?” he asked in an interview with TV3 monitored by MyNewsGh.
He noted that certain lifestyles are deliberately concealed, making them hard to trace.
For this reason, he argued that auditing what is hidden and illegal requires a careful method supported by whistleblowing. “If you see something, you say it,” he stated.
Prof. Opoku Antwi warned that assumptions about how corruption manifests can undermine investigations, stressing that the real challenge lies in uncovering wealth that does not fit the usual patterns of excess spending.
