The government has promised to set up the Special Prosecutor’s Office to prosecute public officials by the end of 2017.
It has also pledged that amendments to the Criminal Code to make corruption a felony, instead of a misdemeanour, will also be made by the end of the year.
“These are, indeed, some of the actions we intend to implement this year,” he told participants from Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana.Organised by Transparency International (TI) and its local chapter, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), with the support of UKAid, the two-day seminar aims at mobilising support for the sharing and use of information on beneficial ownership.
In May 2016, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria made commitments at an anti-corruption summit in the UK to establish beneficial ownership registers.
“We will work to ensure that beneficial ownership information can be used effectively to detect and fight corruption…” the three countries had pledged in a communique issued after the summit.
Beneficial ownership relates to the control, ownership and beneficiaries of the proceeds of a legal entity, such as a company.
Generally, companies are set up with shareholders or nominees who are individuals or groups registered as the legal owners but who, sometimes, do not exercise any control over the benefits of the company.
That enables individuals to launder stolen funds through the companies or trust funds by using these corporate entities as a front to hide their real identities.
Dr Bawumia said indications from the World Bank and the World Economic Forum were that about $1.25 trillion was lost annually through bribes, while five per cent of global annual GDP, about $2.5 trillion, was lost through corruption.
He said figures from OXFAM also showed that poor countries lost $170 billion in tax evasion, with the organisation concluding that a fraction of the amount could fund health services to save the lives of about 150 million children.
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