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The Anti-Money Laundering Bill, 2020 Bill which seeks to help plug the holes in the existing anti-money laundering regulatory framework and make it more responsive to international standards has been taken through the consideration stage in Parliament.
The Bill, when passed, will also amend and consolidate the laws relating to money laundering and provide for related matters.
Deputy Finance Minister Hon. Kwaku Kwarteng moving the motion for the Second Reading of the Bill on Tuesday said the Bill is to avoid piecemeal legislation in addressing all the deficiencies in the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008 Act 749.
He observed that the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering and Terrorism in 2016 carried an anti-money laundering and financing of terrorism evaluation with a focus of the exercise on technical compliance as well as assessment of the effectiveness of the anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism regime of the country.
According to the Deputy Finance Minister, the evaluation report identified some strategic deficiencies in the country’s anti-money laundering regulatory framework and said even though the result reflected significant improvement, it still did not meet the revised Financial Action Task Force (FAFT) methodology and Ghana was sadly placed on the FAFT “grey” list.
He said it therefore became necessary to repeal the current Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008 (Act 749) in order to address the strategic deficiencies and comply with the FAFT recommendations, hence Government’s decision to repeal the current Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2008 (Act 749) and the submission to Parliament the new Bill to avoid piecemeal legislation in addressing all the deficiencies in Act 749.
Hon. Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Ranking Member on the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee stated that the status of Ghana on FAFT was not desirable as it posed very stringent measures not only on Ghanaian businesses but also Ghanaian travellers as they had to demonstrate the sources of their resources.
The Tamale Central lawmaker indicated Ghana, being a member of FAFT, imposed on her a responsibility to ensure that she complied with the anti-money laundering requirement by the international regulators.
He said the new comprehensive Bill was intended to incorporate all the current requirements of FAFT to enable Ghana to get out of the “grey list” of countries that had failed to comply with the international regulations.
In another development the Creative Arts Industry Bill, 2020 seeking to establish a Creative Industry Agency and provide the institutional framework for the development and management of the industry has be taken through the consideration stage.
The Bill is also seeking to operationalize quasi-self-regulatory governance policy which will allow practitioners in the creative arts industry to formulate policies and plans to regulate their operation
It will address the financing challenges which the creative arts practitioners and operators encounter by providing for the establishment of a Creative Industry Fund to be accessed by practitioners and operators for financing of projects and programmes in the creative industry.
Source: Philomena Kuntu Blankson – Myghanamedia.com ( Parliament – Reporter)
