Thursday, April 28, 2016
By Edmund Mingle
Moves for the development of Beneficial
Ownership Register for the extractive sector, which will unveil the actual
individual owners of companies, are underway.
The introduction of the Beneficial Ownership
Disclosure (BOD) Register, is part of efforts by the country to ensure
transparency and fight corruption in the extractive sector.
Currently, the government is collaborating
with the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), the
Ghana Open Government Partnership, Financial Intelligence Centre and other
agencies, to fashion out a roadmap for the development of the Registry by 2017.
M. B Abdul Razack, National Coordinator of
GHEITI, explained at a media workshop on the 2014 GHEITI Report on oil and gas at
Dodowa, that the roadmap would determined how Ghana’s BOD should be rolled out.
Beneficial owners are the actual individuals
who control or enjoy the benefits of companies, although the companies may have
legal identities.
When it becomes operational, the BOD
registry, which is increasingly being adopted by developed countries, would
identity the true owners of companies so as to check tax evasion, money
laundering and corrupt practices through the use of dummy and anonymous
companies.
The register, which would be hosted by the
Registrar General’s Department, is expected to contain personal identity and
details of the beneficial owners of companies in the extractive industry.
It falls in line with government’s
determination to fulfill its commitments to the global inter-governmental
Financial Action Task Force to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
President Mahama is expected to give an
update on the BOD regime at an anti-corruption summit in the United Kingdom
next month.
According to Dr. Steve Manteaw, Co-Chairman
of GHEITI, although Ghana’s effort has been good, there was need to speed up the
process to meet the international commitments in transparency and anti-money
laundering.
He was unhappy that the Petroleum Exploration
and Production Bill, which is currently before Parliament, has no provisions on
BOD, a situation he described as worrying.
Renewed efforts for the BOD around the globe
comes in the wake of the “Panama Papers” leak, which revealed concealed
investments through offshore financial structures, linked to influential people
around the globe.
Norway last year joined Denmark and the United Kingdom—the first
country to commit to a public registry of beneficial ownership information back
in October 2013- as the latest countries to introduce the
BOD legislation and systems to ensure increased financial transparency and
tackle the abuse of anonymous companies.
The European Union also finalized a measure
in May
2015 that,
among numerous provisions, required all EU member-states to create central
registries of beneficial ownership information for companies established
in their countries.
While the EU directive doesn’t
explicitly require states to make these registries public, it allows them to
make the information public if they choose, and it does require them to at
least make the information available to people with a “legitimate interest” in
the information, with the aim of fostering accountability between
investors, citizens, and governments.
