COP FRANK Adu-Poku (rtd)
COP FRANK Adu-Poku (rtd), board chairman of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), has charged board members to help make money laundering unappealing.
He said money laundering, if not attacked with all the seriousness it deserves, will ultimately lead to blacklisting with its attendant economic, political and social implications for Ghana.
Ghana, it would be recalled, was recently taken off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey list after it detected some deficiencies in Ghana’s Anti-Money Laundering regime. It therefore drew an action plan for Ghana with time lines from 2019 to 2021 to work itself out or risk being placed on the blacklist.
COP Adu-Poku (rtd) made the appeal when he addressed members of the FIC board after they were sworn in at a short ceremony at the Ministry of Finance in Accra.
Once the Director General of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), COP Adu-Poku (rtd), a former Deputy Chief Executive of the FIC, maintained that with the rich accounting, security and intelligence, legal and finance, backgrounds of members, Ghana will not go back to FATF.
“I have no doubt in my mind that we shall deliver on our mandate and that I can count on you with the support of the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, and other stakeholders.”
Other members of the board included Kweku Dua, Chief Executive Officer and Former Deputy Director of BNI; John Ampotuah Kumah, Deputy Minister of Finance and MP for Ejusu; Osei Bonsu Dickson Esq, Director Legal of Ministry of National Security, Dr Joseph France, director and head of financial stability, department of Bank of Ghana, COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah, Director General of Police professional standards and Nana Domtie Onwona–Kwakye.
Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei Asare, was sworn onto the board to represent the Minister of Finance.
In an address, she noted that Ghana’s ability to move itself from the FATF Grey list has revived the confidence in the economy, and placed the country on a high pedestal.
Mrs Osei Asare noted that the new Act, has addressed all the loopholes in the previous one adding this will assist the board to deliver even more.
By Linda Tenyah-Ayettey