Participants at a high level convening on Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs), held in Accra have called for thorough investigations into why the Engineering, Procurement Construction and Commissioning (EPCC) contract of the Western Corridor Gas Infrastructure Project never passed through Parliament.
In a communiqué issued after a two-day workshop on Illicit Financial Flows, the participants drawn from the media, labour unions, civil society organisations and government institutions, urged Parliament to give better effect to the exercise of parliamentary oversight and re-visit the circumstances that undermined its own processes.
The participants also called on the government to strengthen the Financial Intelligence Centre and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), to conduct or collaborate with other institutions to undertake researches into the IFFs phenomenon in Ghana.
For Africa, they demanded increased intensity and re-acceleration of the IFF Agenda by African leaders through a continental Plan of Action.
Additionally, one interim measure they proposed is for African governments to leverage their constitutional authority to sanction banks and other financial players that facilitate and hold on to illicit funds.
In furtherance to the above, the participants called for Africa’s effective participation and leadership in international norm setting in relation to taxation and regulation of Transnational Corporations, and the location of these processes in democratic multi-lateral arenas under the auspices of the United Nations.
The theme for the two-day workshop was “Combating Illicit Financial Flows to Foster Sustainable Development Goals- Taking Stock and Strengthening Responses.”
A campaigned dubbed, “Stop the Bleeding campaign to end Illicit Financial Flows From Africa” was officially launched in Ghana at the end of the workshop to help create awareness on IFFs and aid in fighting the canker.
By Pamela Ofori-Boateng
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