Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre (CAACC) in collaboration with African Development Bank conducted a Course on Managing Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery Course from the 08th - 12 th JULY 2024.
The course was designed with the intention of meeting the needs of anti-corruption agencies involved in investigating financial crimes like corruption and money laundering focusing particularly on the following areas;
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Financial Investigation techniques,
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Conducting Parallel Investigation,
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Asset tracing, Asset Forfeiture and Asset Recovery,
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Process-laid down examples of Asset Seizures Procedures,
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Asset Repatriation and Asset Management
The course was officially opened by Ms Priscilla Israel the Acting Director General, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) In her opening remarks Ms Israel alluded that Corruption is not a natural catastrophe. It is a man-made nightmare created by few selfish people among us who want to enrich themselves without effort and at the expense of the majority. They are unconsciously destroying social cohesion of our nations, contributing to the underdevelopment of the continent, and perverting the moral values of our society.
She also highlighted that in the last decade, organized criminal networks have diversified and intensified their criminal activities. Illicit funds are laundered and invested by criminals in diverse economic activities. Regional threat assessments for some regions of Africa have identified illicit trafficking in natural resources as one of the sources of financing terrorism. Criminal sources of funds include but are not limited to corruption, drugs trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, traffic in illicit goods, fraud (tax evasion, insurance fraud, and pyramid schemes), robbery and extortion, trafficking in natural resources and wildlife. Many criminals around the world are trying to disguise the origins of money obtained through illegal activities so it looks like it was obtained from legal sources. Studies have shown that money laundering and illicit financial crimes pose challenges to political and economic security around Africa. This course is intended to ensure that investigators are capacitated to investigate and prosecute financial crimes and corruption.
