‘Let’s kick out money laundering’

THE Bank of Ghana (BoG) has charged all banks and financial institutions to adhere strictly to the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2008, in order to deter people and organisations from attempts to transform illegally acquired wealth into clean resources.
The Act gives banks the legal authority to question and report large and suspicious lodgement of funds and suspicious transactions to a money laundering authority to be investigated.
With the passage of the law in response to the current threat of money laundering and terrorist financing across the world, a Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), is being established by the BoG as provided for by the law to receive and analyse financial information and suspicious transaction for further investigations by law enforcement authorities.
The list of accountable institutions included banks and non-banking institutions, operators of game of chance, dealers of precious metals and stones, auctioneers, lawyers, accountants, real estate company or agent and non-governmental institutions that carried on activities including deposit taking of money, financing of trade, industry, commerce or agriculture, securities portfolio management and dealing in shares, stocks, bonds or other securities.
The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Lionel Van Lare Dosoo, who conveyed the directive at a seminar on "Managing the Risk of Money Laundering", emphasised that with the Ghanaian economy increasing integrating into the global financial system, it was imperative that the local financial system adhered to international best practice.
The seminar which was organised by KPMG was attended by stakeholders drawn largely from the banking community.
"Considering the critical nature of foreign investment to a developing economy like ours, it becomes extremely imperative that every efforts is made to ensure that our banks and other financial institutions adhere to strict professional banking practices to help stop these activities," he stated.
He pointed out that "where banks failed to keep a business transaction record, report suspicious transactions or an officer who commits money laundering offence, the Act empowers the FIC to obtain a search warrant to enter any premises belonging to that officer or employee of such institution.”
He disclosed that the law also allowed officials of FIC to search the premises and remove any document, material or other things important for the purpose of the law enforcement agency.
To that effect, he said, banks were also required to develop internal policies, procedures and controls aimed at countering money laundering, noting that those should include designation of compliance officers, adequate screening procedures when hiring employees and an audit function to test compliance with policies and control relating to money laundering activities.
Mr Dosoo said it was expected that the identification, documentation and record keeping of banks would help in surveillance and investigations of movements of large sums of money and monetary instruments.
The deputy governor said the central bank’s "Know Your Customer” policies were also geared towards helping banks to determine customers' true identity, sources of income and business.
The deputy governor expressed hope that the ongoing process of the National Identification Scheme would further enhance customer identification and improve transparency in banker-customer relations.
The BoG was also in close collaboration with the National Security, the Commercial Crime Unit of the Ghana Police Service and all commercial banks on issues relating to money laundering, adding that Ghana had been slated for an Anti-Money Laundering Assessment in April 2009.
Mr Dosoo said the country had also taken steps to observe international treaties and conventions on the subject.
The Head of Corporate Reporting and Investment Banking at the National Banking College (NBC), Nana Otuo Acheampong, said religious bodies had also been cited in the law and should endeavour to adhere to it.
According to him, the inclusion of religious bodies in the list of accountable institutions under the Act was to require religious leaders to also report suspicious donations to the church for investigations by the FIC.
He emphasised that an accountable institution should comply by reporting such suspicions within 24 hours after the knowledge or grounds for suspicion of the transaction.
Nana Acheampong bemoaned the fact that despite the enactment of laws designated to curb money laundering, these evils still take place and were in most cases on the increase.
"The law enforcement agencies all over the world are overwhelmed by the sheer size and sophistication that criminals are now employing to perpetrate their illegal deeds", he stated and indicated that the extent to which money was being laundered globally was estimated to be between $500 billion and $1 trillion.
A Partner of KPMG in charge of Forensic and Africa Head of Anti-Money Laundering Services, Mr Kevin West, stressed the need for complaint officers to be skilled and well trained to ensure that Ghana was not labelled a money laundering entry point to the West African sub-region.
He said although money laundering could not be completely eradicated, it was important to ensure that the country did not become a victim of people who used the country's financial institutions for criminal activities.
Addressing the participants on scenarios captured in the Global Anti-money Laundering Survey conducted in 2007, Mr Kevin said strict compliance to the law was essential for Ghana to keep a clean sheet in the face of the raging menace.