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Seminar on Economic and Financial Crimes ends with a Communiqué
Friday, 18 June 2010 01:44
By Abdoulie JohnThe 3rd Seminar on Economic and Financial Crimes for English Speaking Judges of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) concluded last Wednesday at the Sheraton International Conference Centre, Brusubi, with the drafting of a final communiqué, endorsed by participating judges.
The Declaration produced at the end of the training session is the result of discussions that took place from 14 to 16 June, and it reflects issues related to international and national legal framework on money laundering and terrorism financing; principles of asset recovery, asset forfeiture and confiscation; principles of restraint in confiscation proceedings; principles of international cooperation; mutual legal assistance and extradition in financial crimes matters as well as the role of financial intelligence units.
Among the problems that are hindering the track and trail of organized crime, according to the final communiqué, are “political interference in the investigation and prosecution of financial crime cases; failure of Attorneys-General in some countries within the region to prosecute certain high level crimes, including drug trafficking, corruption and tax evasion; combination of the office of the Attorney-General with that of the Ministry of Justice; and lack of capacity of law enforcement agencies to trace the proceeds of crimes.”
One of the major discussions centered on the “various Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism legislation in the region” and resulted to a call to “harmonize the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) legislation in the Anglophone countries since all the countries apply common law principles.” This issue was in the forefront throughout all of the discussions, due to the controversy seen in the hiatus existing between countries.
In the final agreement, participants recommended that “anti-corruption agencies should be independent of political power and have the mandate to prosecute offenders without obtaining the Attorney-General’s fiat.”
In addition, the communiqué highlighted that “participants observed that the absence of an effective and independent Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in some countries in West Africa is encouraging the perpetuation of financial crime. They called for the immediate establishment of FIUs in all Anglophone countries as well as the training of all relevant agencies on the relevance of FIU in crime prevention, nationally and globally.”
Finally, the declaration seeks to strengthen the follow-up mechanisms and urge the “ECOWAS Court of Justice to facilitate the establishment of the West African Judges Association.”
It could be recalled that GIABA's 3rd Seminar on Economic and Financial Crimes for English speaking Judges was jointly organized with the Commonwealth Secretariat.
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