Money laundering is acknowledged to have spread throughout the social, political, and economic fabric of many nations, including Liberia.
However, the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), a specialized institution of ECOWAS, as part of efforts to address the problem, on Tuesday, August 9, commenced a two-day national sensitization seminar on implementing anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) in Monrovia.
GIABA, as an ECOWAS institution, is aware that religious leaders in Liberia do have a great role to play in promoting peace, unity, fighting against violence, and terrorism, money laundering activities, and the fight againt corruption.
The Director General of GIABA, Edwin W. Harris, told religious leaders that he strongly believed that they can become influential in fighting against money laundering and terrorist financing.
“It is a common belief that religious leaders who have considerable influence among their followers can use their moral persuasion to channel the good of the society. We must be bold to speak the truth at all times, against evil, drive a good path, counsel the bad, and report obvious destructive evils to the appropriate authority where necessary,” he said.
He explained that one of GIABA’s fundamental goals was therefore to promote strategic partnerships with the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders to increase awareness of AML/CTF in order to empower citizens to take action.
Harris said the training is not just a task for religious leaders, but it is meant to build the capacities of other stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, judiciary, financial institutions, designated non-financial business institutions, professionals, the media, youth, women's groups, as well as CSOs.
He said this implies that all hands must be on deck to achieve the desired outcome.
According to him, he observed that money laundering and terrorist financing involved a high level of violence and extremism.
“Those obvious challenges associated with vices. Therefore, it is important to engage and utilize the tremendous influence of religious leaders in addressing some of the ills ravaging the region,” he said.
“This training is a clarion call for all of us to play our role in ensuring a peaceful, secure, and economically viable nation in the region at large through the instrumentality of religion,” he added.
He further said that the role of religious leaders is the key reason why GIABA decided to invite eminent personalities like them to the seminar.
He said in order to promote peaceful coexistence, religious leaders must speak out strongly against violence, extremism, terrorism, corruption, human trafficking, knapping, and other predicate offences.
“We anticipate that this seminar will serve as a springboard for all religious and opinion leaders to renew their commitment to identifying the key roles they must play in raising awareness and shaping the morale of their congregation and followers through their persuasion messages,” Harris said.
Augustus J. Flomo, Deputy Finance Minister for Economic Management, who declared the workshop opened on Tuesday, August 9, on behalf of Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, said the religious community, who are strong partners to the government, should be cherished so that they will continue to move the agenda of Liberia.
Flomo told the participants that, to be an honest person in society, they should stand for what they earned and what they have. It should be something that they have worked for, adding that they “should not crook or steal from people.”
“So, the intent of this training is to protect our country from bad people. We should not work to support people who have evil minds and plan evil to go against the state or the people,” he said.
Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Emmanuel T. Gee, Acting Director General of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Liberia, said the danger caused by money laundering and terrorist financing to any given economy cannot be overemphasized.
Gee said money laundering and financing terrorism take advantage of vulnerabilities in laws, procedures, and systems to commit harmful crimes by themselves or in association with an enabler and gatekeeper.
According to him, the risk of using religion to commit perpetual crimes of money laundering and terrorist financing through not-for-profit organizations has been identified as high and, therefore, measures have been taken to address such vulnerability in many jurisdictions, including Liberia.
He said, “Awareness and sensitization are key measures to propel and expose actors of our vulnerable sector to take due care, prevent and expose suspicious activities to the Financial Intelligence Agency of Liberia, the Ministry of Justice, etc.”
Gee also expressed confidence that the seminar would lead to advocacy against ML/TF and their predicate offenses among the populace.
Meanwhile, the training is being delivered by experts and GIABA faculty through lectures and panel discussions on different topics, including: " Understanding GIABA’s Role, Mandate and Activities; International AML/CFT Measures: Implications for West Africa and Roles of Faith-Based Organizations; Implementation of AML/CFT Measures in Liberia; The Journey So Far: Issues and Challenges; Identifying Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risks and Vulnerabilities in Religious Organizations, among other things. The two-day GIABA training is expected to end today in Monrovia with an official communiqué from the religious leaders.