Seychelles
News and blog
Legal amendments boost Seychelles’ ability to recover illicit assets
A newly amended law in the Seychelles will enable our partners at the Anti-Corruption Commission of Seychelles ACCS to more effectively prosecute corruption and associated money laundering cases, as well as to seize and confiscate proceeds of crime. Our International Centre for Asset Recovery ICAR contributed advice and recommendations to the Seychelles Government on the Anti-Corruption Amendment Act, 2022%20Act%202022.pdf , which the Seychelles National Assembly approved in full on 19 May 2022. Key changes The new law amends the Anti-Corruption Act, 2016 to: Enable the ACCS to investigate and prosecute offences of conspiracy and attempt under the Penal Code. Without this amendment, the ACCS, created in 2016, could prevent, investigate, detect and prosecute substantive Penal Code offences of corruption or theft, for example, but not conspiracies or attempts to commit these offences. Allow the ACCS to prosecute offences of money laundering that occurred not only after the current Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act, 2020 2020 AML Act came into force, but also while the previous 1996 and 2006 AML Acts were in force. It also enables the ACCS to apply for restraint of assets and confiscation under those previous laws. Clarify the offences created under Section 40 of the Anti-Corruption Act of conspiracy and attempt. The revised offences created are now coherent and in line with other similar offences under the Penal Code, using the same definitions. Closing a money laundering loophole In addition, the Anti-Corruption Amendment Act, 2022 has made an amendment to the 2020 AML Act to cure an important loophole. Under the 2020 AML Act, as enacted, it was not possible to prosecute someone for money laundering where the property that they were laundering originated from a criminal offence that took place before the Act came into force. The amendment ensures that people can now be prosecuted for acts of money laundering that took place after this law came into force, even if the original criminal act that generated the money took place before that. There were arguments that this was introducing a retrospective law. This is not the case, since it is the act of money laundering which is being prosecuted and not the criminal act that generated the money. Why are these amendments significant? In practice, the amendments enable the ACCS to: investigate and prosecute all offences of corruption, whenever they took place; prosecute linked offences of money laundering as well as conspiracies / attempts to commit offences; use the asset recovery powers which were available when the offences took place. The extension of these powers to the ACCS means that suspects can be investigated and tried for all relevant offences in one trial, rather than having to face separate trials by the ACCS and the Attorney General for offences arising out of the same facts. This change will help to resolve an issue that is hindering progress in the high-profile "Black Iron" corruption case. The case relates to the alleged misappropriation of USD 50 million loaned to the Republic of Seychelles during the presidency of the late Albert René. Progress in combating corruption and money laundering May de Silva, Commissioner of ACCS, has welcomed the partnership with ICAR, which strengthens the capabilities of the institution. She said: We welcome the support of ICAR and we have seen the immediate benefit to this partnership with ACCS. This is a new institution which has started applying the Anti-Corruption Act 2016 and AML/CFT Act 2020. The support of legal experts in assisting ACCS fight corruption and money laundering will strengthen our institution and ensure that we have all tools necessary to return our stolen assets. Financial and economic crimes are complex and the Black Iron case is one such case which have shown the limitations of our laws in this sector. We thank ICAR for their invaluable contribution and continued support. Joe Spicer, Senior Asset Recovery Specialist at the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery, supported the ACCS by advising on the proposed amendments. He commented: Too often we see that political rhetoric on corruption is not met with adequate support to the agencies charged with fighting corruption. So it is particularly pleasing to see that when the ACCS went to Government to seek amendments to the law to enable it to more effectively carry out its mandate, the government responded affirmatively and expeditiously introduced the Bill to the National Assembly. A stronger foundation The ACCS and the Basel Institute on Governance signed a case consultancy agreement in March 2022 covering capacity building and technical assistance for complex case work and legislative reform. We look forward to continuing to support the ACCS in its important work to combat corruption and recover stolen funds for the benefit of the people of Seychelles.
Global outreach through ICAR’s diverse training portfolio in asset recovery
ICAR continues to work closely with a series of partner countries increasing their autonomy in the fight against financial crimes and money laundering as well as in recovering stolen public funds. ICAR’s current partner countries in the context of its capacity building services include Bulgaria, Romania, Tanzania and Uganda. In the latter three countries, ICAR launched Train-the-Trainer TTT programmes in financial investigations and asset recovery this year. These TTT engagements consist of several workshops in each country over the course of six to nine months. Through these TTT programmes ICAR trains up a select group of local professionals to become independent trainers. They will in future use the ICAR training methodology to train relevant authorities of their respective country themselves, and without support from external experts. These TTT programmes in Romania, Tanzania and Uganda will be completed at the end of the year. In Bulgaria, the Basel Institute, in the context of its partnership with the Centre for the Study of Democracy CSD , a Bulgarian inter-disciplinary public policy institute, recently delivered its hallmark basic five-day training programme in financial investigations and asset recovery to a select audience of CSD. For the past couple of years, ICAR has been working closely with CSD on a number of short-term anti-corruption capacity building interventions. This partnership will continue at least through the end of this year. Finally, ICAR is currently also engaged in two regional training programmes: one in cooperation with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa COMESA involving two workshops in Seychelles and Zambia , and a second regional training programme in collaboration with the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Centre CAACC , the latter which is forthcoming in Botswana. It is the first time that ICAR is partnering with COMESA and CAACC. It hopes to continue its asset recovery training outreach in Africa with support from these two regional organisations in the future.
Publications
Engaging the private sector in Collective Action against corruption: A practical guide for anti-corruption agencies in Africa
This guidance seeks to capture and explore the innovative approaches that African governments have developed to address the demand and supply sides of corruption more effectively and sustainably. It is designed to help government institutions, in particular national anti-corruption agencies, engage with the private sector more effectively to prevent corruption.
The document highlights good practices identified through interviews, desk research and a 2021 Southern African Development Community (SADC) training on “Emerging anti-corruption issues and private-sector engagement for SADC anti-corruption agencies”.
Africa offers many examples of innovative, unique and context-sensitive approaches to engage the private sector in anti-corruption efforts. Ghana’s National Anti-Corruption Action Plan, for instance, offers an award scheme and is looking into providing tax benefits to companies that enforce anti-corruption measures and demonstrate leadership in the fight against corruption. Other agencies and governments in the region, such as Morocco, are currently discussing implementing a reward system for compliant companies that can be considered when companies bid for public tenders.
These examples demonstrate how African governments proactively seek to tackle corruption and collaborate with the private sector.
From the initiatives captured, three common strategic approaches can be identified to underpin effective and impactful engagement:
- Raising awareness, guiding and working with the private sector to more effectively address corruption risks.
- Identifying and providing incentives to companies investing in their compliance programmes.
- Demonstrating leadership by actively participating in Collective Action and public-private partnerships.
This document is a follow-up of a practical global guide published in July 2022 and was produced with the support of the Siemens Integrity Initiative.
It is freely shareable under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. Please credit the Basel Institute on Governance.