Beneficial Ownership  : We urge all relevant stakeholders to tackle corruption- CISLAC

UGO AMADI

As part of effort in ensuring a better system in extractive industry, The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has called on all relevant stakeholders in the Beneficial Ownership (BO) Transparency campaign to intensify efforts in fighting corruption.

 

CISLAC’s Executive Director, Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani), made the call in Lagos on Thursday during a policy dialogue on BO transparency in the Nigerian extractive sector.

 

Musa said CISLAC believed that collaborative partnership by relevant stakeholders in the BO campaign would help give a voice to this simple but strategic endeavour that would help curb corruption in financial, procurement and other strategic sectors.

 

He said that it would also contribute effectively to domestic revenue mobilisation for financing development of critical sectors of the economy.

 

“The Nigerian Government made commitments to strengthen anti-corruption reforms and joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in July 2016 in a bid to deepen institutional and policy reforms.

 

“One of the commitments within the anti-corruption agenda in the consolidation of existing and new reforms was the establishment of a Public Central Register of BO of companies.

 

“Six years after this bold commitment, we stand before the Nigerian public and international community to say that we have crossed the first bridge which is having the CAMA amended to support the BO registry establishment.

 

“While legitimate corporate businesses have an integral role in national development, the involvement of Politically Exposed Persons who conceal corruptly acquired wealth through the complex networks of companies deliberately created to hide their identities has further increased the risks they pose to non-fortified economies” Musa said.

 

According to him, Siemens, Halliburton and Malabu oil scandals, to cite a few high-profile cases, had a net impact on revenue leakages that was unbearable for the country’s finances and the citizens’ economic well-being.

 

“ CISLAC contextualises its conversations around BO in its contemporary form as defined by the following indexes:

 

“ Financial Action Task Force (FATF) whose efforts aim at promoting policies and standards that insulate global financial systems from acts of money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. (Article 24 & 25).

 

“ Nigeria’s obligation under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and other international anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism instruments to improve the transparency of legal entities and other arrangements.

 

“The global Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) implementation of the BO standards in this sector.

 

“We were already facing some sanctions from the European Union for the non-existence of anti-money laundering legislations; while we see and hear of prosecutions of Individuals and entities involved in the #panamapapers leaks and the #wikileaks among others.

 

“There seems to be no legal framework that enables the convictions of all that was involved from Nigeria; aside the fear of the international community,” he said.

 

“ Without transparent ownership of Nigerian and international companies operating within the Nigerian jurisdiction, we will not be able to stop the bleeding through illicit financial outflows.

 

“It was perpetually on a geometric progressive increase year on year, which costs us annually around 17 billion US dollars, with special emphasis on the backbone of our economy, the oil and gas industry.

 

“These points as raised above, alongside other beneficial aspects of the Amended CAMA, are  basis for engagement in this context,” he said.

 

It would be recalled that CISLAC focus on ascertaining the status of progress in the implementation of the BO transparency initiative in Nigeria and identifying key state actors who are  instrumental to delivering on the objectives.

 

It also identifies opportunities for effective coordination, the establishment of a network and/or facilitating access to relevant information for effective the implementation and monitoring of BO transparency processes in Nigeria.

 

Also, it also aims to harvest an agenda for advancing advocacy toward the effective implementation of BO in the extractive sector.

 

Musa extended his gratitude to Palladium for the  partnership with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which made the engagement possible.