West African accountants urge to cooperate with other authorities to tackle money laundering

Dr Abdullahi Shehu, DG of GIABA

Accountants in the West African sub-region should cooperate and collaborate with relevant authorities in their countries to curb the menace of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (ML and FT), said the director general of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

Dr Abdullahi Shehu said accountants across the sub-region should cooperate with authorities like the police, lawyers, and other law enforcement agencies in customer identification, and record keeping and reporting of suspicious transactions.  This is cognizance of the fact that the fight against the twin evils of ML/TF required concerted efforts.

Dr Shehu made this statement on Wednesday in Banjul during the beginning of a two-day regional training on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism (AML and CFT) requirements for accountants.   

The training, which is organised by GIABA, is being attended by accountants from English-speaking countries in the sub-region namely Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  It is meant to enhance the capacity of participants to enable them fulfil their obligations to adopt and implement AML and CFT measures.  Such measures include risk assessment and application of the risk-based approach to AML and CFT implementation.

Dr Shehu noted that if the expertise of accountants is provided to a criminal enable them (the criminals) to legitimatise their illegal funds through money laundering, the process of legitimisation of illegally acquired money in order to hide its true source. 

“It is therefore critical that accountants and accounting professionals are aware of and thus, are required to exercise due diligence and consistently monitor transactions of their clients to ensure accurate and meaningful disclosures of suspicion of illegal activity,” the GIABA DG said.

As financial professionals, accountants cannot afford to be complacent when it to being involved in the laundering or criminal proceeds. 

GIABA DG told the accountants: “You are expected to be on the lookout for possible criminal activities because, even if you are judged to have been unaware of the full nature of a client’s shady business, you will still be subject to legal or professional penalties at the end of the day.”

Two West African countries register sound progress in fighting money laundering

Ghana and Nigeria are making tremendous progress and achievement in the fight against the twin crimes of money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF), a news release from the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in WestAfrica (GIABA) has said.

According to the release from the GIABA Information Centre in Nigeria on Friday, Ghana has made significant progress in improving its Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime hence the Financial Action TaskForce (FAFT) has excluded the country from its list of countries with deficiencies in AML/CFT regime.

Initially, FAFT - global standard setting body for anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism - blacklisted Ghana due to the country’s lack of progress in improving its AML/CFT regime and also called on member countries to consider the risks and be cautious in doing any transaction with Ghana.

Following this, the release said Ghana developed an Action Plan to address the strategic deficiencies identified in its AML/CFT regime, with the support of FATF and GIABA, an arm of ECOWAS mandated to clean the sub-region of the twin crimes of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (ML/FT).

In October 2010, Ghana made a political commitment to implement the Action Plan within one year.

GIABA calls for re-examining of laws against money laundering, financing terrorism in W/Africa

There is a need to re-examine the anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures in West African countries to ensure they do not induce superficial compliance by countries, said the director general of the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), Dr Abdullahi Shehu.

Dr Abdullahi Shehu

Dr Shehu observed that the current AML/CFT framework may force money launderers and extremist groups to make frequent tactical changes and thus produces more grievances or fertile grounds for the recruitment of new set of criminals. 

Most parts of the AML/CFT framework of countries in the sub-region are products of imperfect and incomplete information, hence the need to establish and address the root causes of terrorism to ensure the successes recorded by the AML/CFT framework are enduring, Dr Shehu said while presenting a paper on the challenges of implementing  counter-financing of terrorism regimes in West Africa at the training workshop on AML/CFT for North and West African states organised by the Swiss Confederation and the Federal Republic of Nigeria in collaboration with Giaba held in Abuja, Nigeria, from December 11 to 13, 2012.  

“The benefits of implementing effective AML/CFT regimes are enormous,” the Giaba DG said. “Giaba will continue to support its members to implement effective AML/CFT measures that facilitate optimal deployment of resources and proper sequencing of intervention activities.”

For him, the adoption of international AML/CFT standards is not the magic wand towards eradicating money laundering and financing terrorism, but they are milestones towards building enabling framework that would provide the roadmap for achieving the ultimate goal of a crime-free society.

He said Giaba, an arm of ECOWAS established to fight money laundering and terrorist financing in West Africa, is mandated to develop strategies and mechanisms for the prevention and control of the twin crimes in the sub-region.

Low capacity hinders implementation of FATF Recommendations

All the West African countries which constitute GIABA Member States are facing daunting challenges of low technical know-how and the financial resources to implement the global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), global pacesetters in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing. 

Ten-year jail term, D10m fine for money launderers, terrorism financiers

National Assembly members have unanimously endorsed a Bill which states that an individual found guilty of committing money laundering offences shall be sentenced to a prison term of not less than 10 years.

For corporate body, a fine of not less than D10 million or an order for the revocation of its license of operations shall be levied against it.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Bill 2012 also stipulates that an individual who directly or indirectly  commits the offence of financing of terrorism, and is liable, shall be imprisoned for a term of not less than 10 years and in case of corporate body to a fine of not less than D10 million.

Tabling the Bill before parliamentarians for approval on Wednesday, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Abdou Kolley said the government “remains highly committed” to fighting the twin menaces of money laundering and financing terrorism and has therefore declared zero tolerance for drugs abuse, money laundering and other criminal acts.

However, he noted that The Gambia, like many other countries in the sub-region, is exposed to the risk of money laundering due to porous borders, weak controls, the dominance of cash transactions, as well s drug-related and other criminal flows.

Hon. Kolley said it is in cognizance of this threat that the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) was established by ECOWAS in 2000. 

“The establishment of GIABA was done to ensure the development of strategies to protect the economies of ECOWAS member states from the laundering of the proceeds of crime, improvement of measures and intensifying efforts to combat the laundering of proceeds of crime in West Africa and strengthening co-operation amongst its members,” he said.

In November 2008 the GIABA Plenary adopted a report identifying deficiencies in The Gambia’s legal and institutional frameworks with regard to combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

According to the finance minister, these deficiencies include inadequate coverage of predicate offences which needed to be broadened in line with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the principal international standard body setting on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The Money Laundering Act 2003 of The Gambia designated only 13 predicate offences for money laundering instead of the minimum 20 designated categories as recommended by the FATF.

Furthermore, Hon. Kolley pointed out that the 2003 Act falls short of international standards as it failed to include counter-terrorist financing measures. 

The Act also failed to align thresholds for money laundering offences with international best practices, he said, adding that even the name - the Money Laundering Act 2003 - runs contrary to the intended purposes.

“In an effort to remedy the situation, and bring our legislation in line with international standards, there is need to amend the current anti-money laundering legislation, including changing the name of the Money Laundering Act 2003 to Anti-Money Laundering Act 2012 and also upgrade it to the standard recommended by the FATF,” he explained. 

This is what necessitated the repealing of the Money Laundering Act 2003 and the replacing of it with the Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Bill 2012, Hon. Kolley stated.

The Bill was therefore approved by the country’s lawmakers “in view of its non-controversial nature”.