By: Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Journalists at a capacity building workshop in Illicit Financial Flows at Akosombo in the Eastern region have identified the cun Assets Declaration by public office holders as being very weak in the fight against corruption which it is meant to address.
The journalists are calling for an amendment of the law to allow the Auditor General, custodian of the Declared Assets, to promptly verify, validate and publish the properties declared in the Form to engender transparency in wealth acquisition and declaration by public office holders.
The participating journalists, who were selected through a competitive process as a requirement by the organizers, are practicing in the electronic, print and online media in both state-run and private media organizations.
The five-day training workshop was organized by GIZ Governance for Inclusive Development Programme, and co-funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office in partnership with DW Akademie.
A Consultant in Illicit Financial Flows, Bishop Akolgo, disclosed that, Ghana lost about four point-three billion Dollars in her trade with the European union and the United States only between 2000 and 2012 and added that the country loses much more income to illicit financial flows than it is receiving through financial aid, a situation that needs professionals such as investigative journalists to get involved in fighting the menace.
“I think that the money we’re losing to illicit financial flows might even be more than what we get from aid and oil and minerals put together….As journalists, they need new tools, what we call, Computer Assisted Reporting to help them gather information more efficiently using the internet and how to scrape the web to acquire all the data and information they need to be able to do stories that will be able to bring to light all the hidden agendas of the powerful and influential”, he asserted.
The participants went through theoretical and practical investigative journalism training in Illicit Financial Flows or IFFs covering areas such as channels and mechanisms of the transmission of IFFs, the creation and use of ‘Shell companies’ by individuals and organizations to engage in illicit Financial Flows, Risk Assessment of Ghana’s IFFs, basic tools to interpret company accounts, base erosion, Profit Shifting, Taxing the digital economy and Digital Security.
A German Freelance Investigative journalist, Mr. Patrick Batarilo, one of the resource persons, took the participants through Investigative Reporting in Illicit Financial Flows, the risks involved and how the journalist could minimize the potential pitfalls or challenges.
The training was as well used by the organizers to equip the participating journalists with the relevant skills, tools and research resources to investigate suspicious illegal financial flows in Ghana and Africa with the objective of helping governments to minimize the economic crime to the barest minimum towards improved revenue mobilization for socio-economic development.
The participants during group works, identified the banking, exports, imports, international trade, foreign direct investments, the real estate as well as the extractive sectors as the avenues ripe for the transmission of illegal finances in Ghana.
Some of the participating journalists who spoke to GBC, described the training as very insightful, and timely.
“After gaining the knowledge and skills of what to do, I’ll go all out and do stories and focus on this issue”, Ivy Setordzi assured.
On his part, Denis Peprah, another participant said, “Now we’ll use our pens and airwaves to do what is expected of us in the interest of Ghana to control this menace and help the nation to generate the needed funds for development.”
“It’s been an eye opener. Illicit Financial Flows is a technical area, particularly for people who want to do investigative piece, it’s has shown us the toll on the national purse and how we can coordinate efforts to help our country in that light”, Rebecca Awuah, also noted.
The Programmes Director of DW Akademie, Ghana, Susana Fuchs-Mwakideu, in an interview with GBC, charged the participants to use the new skills and knowledge to make positive impact in fighting the financial crime.
