The immediate past chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye has called for stronger collaboration among government agencies to combat illicit financial flows.
Owasanoye, who is the Coordinating Director of the Proceeds of Crime Management and Illicit Financial Flows Coordination Directorate of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, emphasised that inter-agency synergy was crucial to closing loopholes exploited for illegal movement of funds.
He made the call in an interview with Saturday PUNCH ahead of the national conference on illicit financial flows.
According to him, the objective of the conference is to enlighten Nigerians on the menace that illicit financial flows pose to economic development and efforts that must be made to address it.
“FIRS has issued regulations to deal with transfer pricing. The service is liaising with other agencies and all that. But still, we have not been able to come out accurately with data to close the knowledge gap as to the exact amount that we are losing. So, part of what we will discuss at this conference is this need for collaboration: bringing out all those agencies that have one role to play or the other.
“This will ensure we reduce the losses. The other significant thing to say is that it will also build the capacity of FIRS tax officers who are in the field and who will be better trained to know what to look for in such transactions,” Owasanoye said.
He described illicit financial flows as a major hindrance to effective revenue generation, saying commercial transactions account for over 60 per cent of revenue losses.
The ex-ICPC boss also called for a comprehensive review of the country’s anti-corruption laws to close existing legal gaps hindering the fight against illicit financial flows.
“Already there are legal laws. We talked about money laundering law. We have enough laws to deal with that. We just need the political will to enforce the laws.
“When we implement these laws effectively, we will begin to see the practical gaps therein. But those laws are not fully implemented yet,” Owasanoye added.
