LRC, a member of ALAC (Legal Advice Centre) an anti-corruption platform set up by GII participated in a two day workshop from 2-3 February, 2017. The workshop was organized by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local chapter of Transparency International with UK AID funding, brought together key stakeholders from Civil Society Organizations, representatives of government bodies, private sector, journalists from Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria to collaborate and progress plans on how to collect, share and use beneficial ownership information to tackle corruption. They were joined approximately by ten international experts who shared their expertise on relevant issues such as beneficial ownership register, open data, extractives, open contracting and procurement, tax and illicit financial flows.
Transparency International (TI) is running a 12-month project to support the realization of commitments made by Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria at the Anti-Corruption Summit in May 2016 on establishing public beneficial ownership registers. On his keynote address to officially open the workshop, the Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia informed participants of Ghana government`s commitment to pass the Right to Information bill. He also indicated that corruption will be made a degree felony and not a misdemeanor and that government was resolved to make resources available to beneficial ownership. The Executive Director of GII, Mrs. Linda Ofori-Kwafo stressed that the days of sleeping were over and that Ghanaians were looking forward to the establishment of Independent State Prosecutor to help fight corruption in the country.
Among the workshop`s objectives were to increase understanding of why beneficial ownership information is useful for tackling corruption from different sectors and to have insight on methods, tools and approaches to help make progress towards enhanced beneficial ownership transparency and the fight against corruption.
Participants discussed the intent of challenges posed to Africa and other parts of the world of non-disclosure of beneficial ownership and making efforts in combating the problem committed to ensuring inter alia;
– Entities doing business commit to an increased transparency and business integrity by unveiling their beneficial owners
– Various African countries translate commitments made at the UK Anti-corruption summit into action.
Participants agreed to continue collaborating in strong partnership and in coalition with each other towards the realization of its objectives.
