Worried by the high rate at
which resource-rich African
countries lose huge revenues
through corruption, illegal
transfers of profits and money
laundering abroad, the
African Union, AU, has asked
President Goodluck Jonathan
and other African leaders to
openly declare their assets and
subject their wealth to public
scrutiny.
A report on Illicit Financial
Flows from Africa, compiled
by an AU panel led by former
South African President Thabo
Mbeki, said Africa loses an
estimated $60billion (about
N10.08trillion) annually
through such transfers. The
report was presented Sunday
at a summit in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.
The report has stirred massive
concerns in Nigerian, which is
said to account for over
$40.9billion (about
N6.87trillion), or 68 per cent
of the total figure.
Cumulatively, Nigeria also
topped the list of ten African
countries with highest
incidence of illicit financial
transfers between 1970 and
2008, recording about
$217.7billion (about
N36.57trillion), or 30.5% of
the total in the continent.
The issue of accountability and
probity by top government
officials has always been a
source of serious concern in
Nigeria, particularly with
President Goodluck Jonathan
repeatedly refusing to publicly declare their
assets.
When the issue surfaced during his third
Presidential media chat in 2014, Mr.
Jonathan criticised those calling for the
declaration, and said leaders should be
allowed to determine whether or not the
decision to make their assets public agreed
with their personal principles.
The president emphasised his disapproval by
infamously declaring that he did not give “a
damn” about publicly declaring his assets.
“The issue of public asset declaration is a
matter of personal principle. That is the
way I see it, and I don’t give a damn about
it, even if you criticise me from heaven,”
the president said.
However, concerned by the findings in the
report about the role of senior government
officials, politicians and state executives in
facilitating corruption and laundering of
scarce public funds in the continent, the
African Union reminded all African
presidents that they must submit their
wealth to public scrutiny in line with global
standards.
“Global standards in anti-corruption and
anti–money laundering require financial
institutions to subject accounts held by
certain persons to greater scrutiny and
monitoring, including senior government
officials, leaders of political parties,
executives at state-owned enterprises and
others with access to a large amounts of
state assets and the power to direct them
(often called politically exposed persons, or
PEPs),” the AU said in its report.
“African Governments can greatly assist
financial institutions in this task by
publishing lists of PEPs, as well as any asset
declarations filed by PEPs and information
about whether the country’s laws prohibit
or restrict the ability of their PEPs to hold
financial accounts abroad,” the AU added.
In addition, the AU said the continent’s
governments could demand foreign
financial institutions to provide details of
accounts held by their listed PEPs,
preferably as part of the new system of
automatic exchange of financial
information being created under the
Organisation of Economic Cooperation and
Development, OECD.
The AU also proposed the integration of
illegal financial transfers as a specific
component of its Convention on Preventing
and Combating Corruption, adding that its
member states should allow the public
access to national and subnational budget
information, as well as processes and
procedures for budget development and
auditing in an open and transparent
manner.
To eliminate the opportunity for illicit
financial flows from national and local
government treasuries, it noted: “Non-
transparent government procurement and
supply chains could provide opportunities
for corruption-related IFFs. African
Governments, therefore, should adopt best
practices in open contracting to reduce IFFs
through government procurement processes.
The panel in its recommendations asked the
Bank for International Settlements to
publish the data in its possession on
international banking assets by country of
origin and destination in a matrix format,
along the lines of data published by the
International Monetary Fund, IMF, for
bilateral trade data, foreign direct
investment and portfolio investment.
Again, the Panel asked that the global
community in all of its institutions,
including parliaments, take all necessary
steps to eliminate secrecy jurisdictions,
introduce transparency in financial
transfers and crack down on money
laundering.
The Panel also called for stronger
collaboration and consistent engagement
between Africa and global players like the
G8, European Union, EU and G20 to help
ensure greater transparency in the
international banking system, with banks
being required to ascertain the identity,
source of wealth and country of origin of
their depositors and their deposits.
All countries, the report, said should
require beneficial ownership information to
be provided when companies are being
incorporated, for that information to be
updated on a regular basis, and for that
information to be of public record.
Beneficial ownership declarations should
also be required for all government
contracts with third parties. False
declarations should result in robust
financial penalties.
The Panel was set up after illegal transfers
were identified in 2011 as one of the threats
to most resource rich countries in Africa to
meet their millennium development goals,
MDGs, the AU at its 4th Joint African Union
Commission/United Nations Economic
Commission for Africa, AUC/ECA,
Conference of African Ministers of Finance,
Planning and Economic Development
constituted the Mbeki Panel to review the
underlying issues stalling Africa’s
accelerated and sustained development
objective.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/176172-au-asks-jonathan-african-leaders-publicly-declare-assets.html

Take a break, go show some respect to the men and women staking their lives in the fight against BH https://www.nairaland.com/2127885/thread-dedicated-nigerian-service-men#30389335

Will GEJ ever do that





His source of riches and money is so dent in corruption and mis-managent of funds..... So am sure he would be scare to declare his asset

In gej's voice 'i don't give a damn'

since you didn't declare your asset to us Nigerians, then I think know is time to declare cos oyibo people are in needed