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| GIABA DG Dr. Abdullahi Shehu says criminals are stepping-up their illicit actiities (Photo Credit: Modou S. Joof/2012) |
Following the implementation
of regional and national Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT)
measures with emphasis on financial institutions, criminals look for vulnerable sectors through which they could launder
their proceeds, according to Dr. Abdullahi Shehu.
The Director General of the Inter-Governmental
Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) explain
on Wednesday that one such vulnerable sector is the designated non-financial
instititions, business professions (DNFBPs).
DNFBPs comprises of accountants, real estate agents, lawyers,
notaries, and other independent legal profesionals, he said during a
GIABA-organised training on the AML/CFT requirements for accountants in
English-speaking West Africa from 11 to 12 September, 2013 in Banjul, The
Gambia.
As part global efforts to ensure that DNFBPs are not misused for
the purpose of laundering proceeds of crime, the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF) began to discuss the Gatekeeper Initiative as far back as 1999.
The initiative is a plan that places disclosure obligations on
certain professionals like lawyers, accountants and auditors.
The FATF revised standards place obligations on accounting
professionals to adopt and implement AML/CFT measures, including risk
assessment and application of the risk-based approach to AML/CFT
implementation.
Margaret I . Unubun, Executive Secretary of Association of
Accountancy Bodies in West Africa, ABWA, says ABWA remains committed to any
noble cause that re-embphasises the inextricable relationship between
collective regional value systems and the overall level of economic growth and
development of the region.
“As active participants in
the economies of the nation states of GIABA, accountants have multiciplicity of
roles in national and regional development,” she said. “Therefore, accountants
should reaffirm the obligation to assist in this crusade.”
The effects of corruption in
every facet of the economies of the countries represented (The
Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) here cannot be
overemphasised, Unubun said in a statem,ent read on her behalf.
Money laundering is simply the
process of making the proceeds of crime to appear to have legitimate origin.
A
crime which, Amadou Colley, Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, said
has proven to be a menace to the world, and the efforts required in the
prevention, detection and prosecution are enormous.
“This
is so mainly because of the sophisticated techniques used by criminals to
launder money,” he said.
Last year 2012, GIABA held a similar sensitization programme in
Dakar, Senegal, for accountants from Francophone West Africa.
The training is meant to sensitise accountants and auditors on
their roles in strengthening their countries’ AML/CFT regimes, following a
similar training held last year for accountants in Francophone West Africa.
GIABA expects that at the end of the training, there will be
improved compliance by accountants in the implementation of AML/CFT measures,
especially enhanced quality and quantity of suspicious transaction reports
(STRs) from members of the accounting profession to the Financial Intelligent
Units, FIUs.
The Financial Action Task Force-styled regional body (FSRB),
GIABA, also look forward to better cooperation between accountants and
regulatory or supervisory bodies.
Written by Modou S. Joof
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