He said government would ensure transparency in the procurement process,
awarding of contracts, as well as transparency in the commodity market and
prevent any facilitation of corruption in the country as promised by President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the electioneering period.
Dr Bawumia said this at the opening of a two-day workshop on Supporting New
Beneficial Ownership Transparency Champions in Accra, organised by the
Transparency International in collaboration with its local representative, the
Ghana Integrity Initiative.
The meeting brought together key stakeholders from Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana
with representatives from civil society organisations, government officials,
investigative journalists and law enforcement agencies to increase their
understanding and knowledge on beneficial ownership in order to collaborate and
plan how to collect, share and use beneficial ownership information to tackle
corruption in their various countries.
Beneficial ownership is a term used to describe the natural person who
directly and ultimately owns, controls or benefits from a company or trust fund
and the income it generates.
The term is often used to contrast with the nominee company owners, who
might be registered as legal owners of the asset without any benefits.
Nominees obscure the real company structure and owners. Professional
nominees are paid a fee for their services but otherwise have no interest in the
transactions. Nominees can also be family members or friends.
The event was organised as a follow-up of the 2016 Anti-corruption Summit
held in London, United Kingdom, in May 2016 to support the realisation of the
commitments made by the three countries in establishing public beneficial
ownership registers.
The Vice President noted that the Anti-corruption Summit in London was also
aimed at moving forward the anti-corruption agenda as contained in the
International Anti-corruption Action Plan and Ghana Shared Growth and
Development Agenda, as well as the United Nations Convention against
Corruption.
He added that government was committed to meeting a number of international
obligations regarding the implementation of the beneficial ownership and
expressed optimism that government’s partnership with the Financial Intelligence
Centre, the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GEITI) and the
EITI standards and Financial Action Taskforce would help in meeting the various
beneficial ownership requirements deadlines.
He said the country had made tremendous progress after last year’s summit
in London compared to its compatriots, saying, ‘‘We have since organised a
consultative workshop on beneficial ownership for state and non-state actors
while the Companies Act, (Act 920) had also been amended to make provision for
beneficial ownership regime a reality.
According to him, Ghana’s EITI in collaboration with other civil society
organisations, relevant government agencies and other partners developed
beneficial ownership roadmap which had been submitted to the international EITI
Secretariat in December 2016 as part of deadline for all EITI implementing
countries including Ghana.
He said the government recognised the huge financial implication to this
roadmap and would make the needed resources available so that the country would
put in place efficient beneficial ownership regime, he stated.
In this regard, he said, detailed information of the identities of
politically-exposed persons and their families would be made accessible to the
public, but would not compromise their security.
He commended the Transparency International and its local representative,
the Ghana integrity Initiative, for organising the regional meeting to
facilitate the process.
He urged the participants to leverage on the choices and experiences of
other countries so that they would be fully equipped to contribute to the full
implementation of the beneficial ownership regime in their various
countries.
