Uganda

From prosecutor to asset recovery trainer: Tom Walugembe

The fight against corruption and financial crime provides career opportunities for people with different personal stories and backgrounds. In this blog, our colleague Tom Walugembe shares his journey from prosecutor in Uganda to asset recovery specialist in the training team of our International Centre for Asset Recovery. He reflects on the personal rewards of his work and the power of training to shape a meaningful path. This article is part of a new series on careers in fighting financial crime and opportunities to learn and study with the Basel Institute. Prosecuting financial crimes: challenging but enriching A career in fighting corruption is professionally enriching. Based on my experience as a former prosecutor, prosecution generally provides an excellent training and mentoring environment for a young lawyer. You get to practise your litigation skills almost daily, which is something you can hardly experience in law firms at that stage. I quickly realised that prosecuting financial crimes would be the pinnacle of my service as a prosecutor. After serving as a general crimes prosecutor for about four years, I was pleasantly surprised to be assigned to the Anti-Corruption department, which I had long dreamed of. Becoming a financial crimes prosecutor further honed my skills. Financial crime cases invariably attract the most accomplished criminal defence lawyers in any country. Prosecuting such cases against experienced and polished lawyers simultaneously enhances one's advocacy skills. Expanding skills, building networks, driving change Financial crimes are diverse, and practice in this area, whether as a prosecutor, investigator, or analyst, exposes individuals to various emerging fields such as cybercrime, cryptocurrencies, international trade law, capital markets, stocks and public procurement. This broadens practitioners' understanding across a wide range of issues, thereby enhancing their professional capabilities. Many financial crimes have a transnational dimension, and working in this field provides the opportunity to network with peers in the same field, whether at a national, regional or international level. Contributing to a nation's anti-corruption and asset recovery efforts brings job satisfaction in the knowledge that one is ultimately enhancing the security and economic development of one's country. Reflecting on my experiences, winning a significant corruption case gave me more fulfilment than any success I had in prosecuting general crime. How specialised training fuelled my career As financial crime is ever-evolving, combating it requires regular specialised training. Serving as a financial crimes prosecutor provided me with access to placement and on-the-job training opportunities, the most significant of which was becoming a certified Trainer through ICAR’s Train-the-Trainer programme. My service as a public prosecutor was a huge determinant in my award of a Chevening Scholarship to pursue my LLM at Queen Mary University of London. Attaining further education propelled me towards even better opportunities and eventually led to my joining the Basel Institute and ICAR team. My current role involves developing and delivering training programmes on financial investigations, asset recovery and related topics, primarily across Africa and other regions of the world. Over the past five years, working in this position at an internationally diverse institution such as the Basel Institute has enabled me to collaborate closely with exceptionally talented and dedicated individuals from various parts of the globe. Contributing to capacity building and transferring skills to practitioners from diverse countries brings immense satisfaction. The opportunity to network and forge friendships with professionals diligently working in their nations to combat financial crime is invaluable. While nothing comes without hurdles, I would unreservedly encourage young professionals to enter the anti-corruption field without hesitation. Inspired? Learn more about our Basel STUDY programmes on anti-corruption and asset recovery – a chance to boost your skills, knowledge and career.

Building follow-the-money skills and networks to target environmental crime syndicates

The illegal wildlife trade is operating at an industrial scale. It has a direct impact on the accelerating rate of biodiversity loss and deprives local communities of sustainable livelihoods. A grant from the UK’s IWT Challenge Fund has enabled the Basel Institute’s Green Corruption team to extend its work in a number of countries vulnerable to the illegal wildlife trade. By providing training, mentoring on live cases and fostering communities of practice, we are advancing the use of “follow-the-money” techniques to combat the criminal networks operating in this field. An underused approach The follow-the-money approach involves scrutinising transactions to extract evidence about crimes and criminal networks. It is widely recognised for its value in investigating and prosecuting profit-driven crime as well as confiscating the proceeds and instrumentalities of crime. However it is still underused, particularly in relation to environmental crime. Like other transnational crime networks, environmental crime syndicates exploit legal, transport and financial systems to facilitate crimes and evade detection, moving money and goods in complex networks around the world. But the use of these systems is also the criminals’ Achilles heel – the size and sophistication of their networks create a significant footprint and enable investigators with the right skills to trace their financial flows. Our programme aims to capitalise on this opportunity by strengthening capacity in follow-the money-techniques, encouraging cross-border collaboration and providing opportunities for peer learning. Training investigators to trace funds Building capacity for these techniques in the environmental field is the foundation of this initiative. This is achieved through a combination of intensive training in financial investigations and asset recovery, and in-person mentoring by locally based advisors. This face-to-face, tailored support can help officers to translate new knowledge into practice, especially when resources are limited. We now have local teams working with government agencies in countries directly impacted by the illegal trade in wildlife and related environmental crimes: In Madagascar, where several species of fauna and flora are under extreme threat from the illegal wildlife trade and illegal logging. The seizure of tens of thousands of radiated tortoises from traffickers in 2018 is just one example of the massive and organised scale of these operations. In Peru and Bolivia, where the jaguar population is classified on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as “near threatened” partly as a result of the illegal trade in this coveted species. In Uganda, which is a transit hub for wildlife products, including ivory and pangolin scales, and a centre of complex financial flows in Africa and beyond. And in Indonesia, where illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing threatens marine ecosystems and affects livelihoods. Strengthening the network A second pillar of the IWT Challenge Fund project is to create a community of experts and advisors on follow-the-money approaches in the environmental sphere. Through virtual roundtables with other IWT Challenge Fund grantees and civil society organisations from around the world, we are collectively working to increase the use of financial investigations and asset recovery in the fight against illegal wildlife trade. As well as the benefits of peer learning and support, building this community will help to generate “surge” capacity to investigate and take down major environmental crime syndicates. Knowledge sharing These efforts align with the establishment of a dedicated Follow-the-Money Working Group in 2022 as part of the Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum – an initiative of the Basel Institute, WWF, Transparency International and TRAFFIC. Led by our Green Corruption team, the Working Group has already been instrumental in facilitating knowledge exchange through workshops on various follow-the-money topics, including closed case reviews, recent trends and proactive financial analysis. An additional sub-group made up exclusively of law enforcement professionals allows peer learning among prosecutors and investigators who are receiving mentoring in our priority countries. These meet virtually to share their experiences and challenges. Increasing risk for criminals, and reach for practitioners As long as environmental crime remains a high-profit and low-risk activity, we will never succeed in combating it. Nor will we succeed without networks of skilled practitioners that reach as far as those of the crime syndicates. The twin pillars of this IWT Challenge Fund project – building both technical capacity for financial investigations and a broad follow-the-money practitioner network – are therefore crucial steps in strengthening global efforts to protect our wildlife and biodiversity.

Grey-listing for anti-money laundering failings: focus on Sub-Saharan Africa

A new special short report for the Basel AML Index analyses why so many Sub-Saharan African countries are on the so-called grey list of the Financial Action Task Force FATF . It covers the impacts on their economic development, the process of grey-listing and what governments need to do to be removed from the list. It also touches on specific areas of concern for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing AML/CFT in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa now grey-listed In October 2022, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania were added to the so-called FATF grey list. Officially known as the “list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring”, the FATF grey list includes countries that are assessed to have strategic deficiencies in their national regimes to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. Sub-Saharan Africa now accounts for a third of countries on the grey list. This aligns with findings of the Basel AML Index, the Basel Institute’s ranking and risk assessment tool for money laundering and terrorist financing ML/TF . In the 2022 Public Edition of the Basel AML Index, the Sub-Saharan Africa region scored poorly for resilience to ML/TF and more than 60 percent of countries fell into the high-risk category. Although grey-listed countries are not subject to sanctions, being placed on the list does have severe implications for their economies. These include a substantial decline in capital inflows and foreign direct investment. Entering and leaving the grey list The short report looks at the FATF’s process for grey-listing, which starts with being referred to the special International Co-operation Review Group for one year. It then looks at what countries need to do to be removed from the list. A high-level political commitment is essential, as is completing an action plan developed to address each’s country’s specific gaps. Our analysis shows specific areas where Sub-Saharan African countries display particular weaknesses, and where regional support initiatives may be helpful. Cross-cutting weaknesses at the government level include the fundamental steps of accurately assessing ML/TF risks and developing a risk-based approach to supervision. Enhancing the capacities of law enforcement agencies and financial intelligence units is also a key need. It takes effort to complete the action plan, but progress is always welcomed. When an on-site visit confirms that all items are satisfactorily achieved, the FATF announces the country’s removal from the grey list at its next plenary meeting. Learn more Download the special report on FATF grey-listing in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report complements a new series of short reports on jurisdictions that have been delisted from the FATF grey list. These will publicly available on the Basel AML Index website Downloads page . Remember: the Basel AML Index Expert Edition offers a sophisticated tool for analysing geographic ML/TF risk. Subscriptions are free to most organisations outside the private sector, as well as journalists.

Bribery isn’t only an exchange of money: what new research tells us about how informal networks enable corruption and vice versa

Bila watu hufiki popote. “Without people or connections you won’t reach anywhere,” said a Tanzanian businessman participating in our recently completed research project on informal networks and corruption. His words encapsulate something we see time and again in our research on corruption: that bribery is far more than just a brute monetary transaction. Often more important, and far less studied, are the informal social networks that connect private individuals and public officials. Exploring informal networks and corruption Our two-year research project, part of the UK Aid-funded Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence Programme GI-ACE , builds on our previous extensive research project on informal governance across seven countries. The evidence from this project highlighted that corruption is usually not the result of individual “rotten apples” acting in isolation to abuse their entrusted power for private gain. Rather, corrupt behaviour takes place according to unwritten rules and through informal social networks that connect the public and private sectors. It is becoming increasingly clear that anti-corruption practitioners need to pay more attention to networks, not only individuals. But a lot of questions still remained to be answered. Are distinct types of informal networks associated with particular types of corruption? How, why and by whom are these networks built? What roles and functions do different individuals have within the networks? What unwritten expectations, understandings and norms govern such networks? What are the implications for anti-corruption practice? Case studies: snapshots of corruption from a network lens With my colleague at the Basel Institute, Senior Research Fellow Jacopo Costa, and Lucy Koechlin, Senior Lecturer at the University of Basel, we set about answering these questions with the help our local researchers Danstan Mukono and Robert Lugolobi in Tanzania and Uganda. What emerged were 10 short case studies six from Tanzania and four from Uganda that illustrate ways in which citizens and business people invest significant efforts in building informal social networks to overcome shortcomings in public service delivery and to access business opportunities. The case studies give life to the research report, which show how monetary bribes and associated benefits are essential to developing informal networks, especially in societies with strong norms around reciprocity and gift-giving. In turn, these networks enable and perpetuate corruption in public service delivery. Importantly, informal networks may go beyond simply friends and acquaintances. In many cases, citizens and business people must use “brokers” – individuals with existing strong connections with relevant public officials – to act as door-openers. How do informal networks help to “get things done”? The stories we heard illustrate how informal networks help citizens and business people to gain benefits in three main areas: 1 - Ease access to public services At a basic level, this can mean someone using personal connections to skip red tape or speed up a service to which they are officially entitled but may otherwise be delayed. As one research participant said, for example: “For those who don’t have ‘jamaa’ a social connection and sometimes ability to provide money, it takes time to get a business license.” Highly bureaucratic procedures such as land transactions are especially vulnerable to this type of behaviour. At a more pernicious level, social networks can help users to obtain services they are not entitled to, or manipulate processes to their advantage. Examples include obtaining a driver’s licence despite not having the right documents, and influencing land valuations to minimise tax. 2 - Secure business opportunities with government The case studies illustrate that informal networks play a vital role in facilitating fraud and corruption in public procurement. Business people with the right connections need only pay the requested “fee” to be awarded a public tender, said one participant, referring to a bribe or kickback. Informal networks can also facilitate privileged access to information about tenders. To build those connections, said participants in both countries, business people may secretly collect information on public officials’ tastes and habits, or develop sophisticated strategies to cultivate links with them. 3 – Help businesses run smoothly Informal networks help entrepreneurs to leapfrog the many bureaucratic hurdles they face when establishing and running businesses. As one of the Tanzanian case studies shows, numerous informal connections have to be established with various public agencies and the officials that work there to get the business off the ground. These connections then form the basis for a network that will allow the business to run smoothly going forward. Complex networks can be built to solve seemingly simple problems. Another Tanzanian case study illustrates how a transport company owner built a “bribery network” involving drivers, conductors, traffic police, bus agents and the transportation regulatory authority. The network ensures that the company’s vehicles can provide a faster and more reliable service compared to competitors by avoiding roadblocks and speeding fines. What else does the research show? The research report also details, using examples from the case studies: The six functional roles that different individuals play in informal networks – from the “seekers” citizens seeking connections to public officials to the “doers” – those who have the ability to “make things happen”. How entry to these informal networks is controlled to make them exclusive for insiders. Social dimensions, including how people invest time and effort in developing their networks and cultivating trust. The case studies offer a wealth of qualitative information and evidence on informal networks, corruption and the links between them. So, what does this mean? In our analysis, we emphasise that anti-corruption practitioners should consider how to save the positive aspects of these informal networks which, in effect, act as efficient mutual support mechanisms in challenging contexts while eliminating their negative effects. Understanding how these informal networks work can help to understand, and target, the motivations of those who engage in bribery and other illicit practices. Addressing the hurdles that individuals experience while accessing public services and competing in public tenders should be a central element of an informed anti-corruption approach. Otherwise, the case studies show how adding formal control mechanisms to prevent corruption for example in competitive public bidding processes can actually generate more corruption than would have occurred otherwise – if only because of the fact that more people need to be bribed to obtain the desired result. The evidence from this research can also point the way to alternative approaches to tackling corruption in such contexts. These include harnessing social norms the topic of our second GI-ACE project and/or introducing efficient ways to resolve business-related disputes between the public and private sectors, such as Ukraine’s Business Ombudsman Council.

Research case study 2: Leveraging informal networks for anti-corruption in East Africa

Informal networks as investment: A qualitative analysis from Uganda and Tanzania