With a view to enhancing the investigation and asset recovery capacities of the Romanian law enforcement and justice authorities mandated to investigate and prosecute anti-corruption and economic crimes and recover stolen assets, the Basel Institute on Governance, through its International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR), has been providing a series of activities, including specialised training in financial investigation, under a project entitled “Further enhancing the investigation capacities of the Romanian judiciary by improving the asset recovery competences”.
On 15 and 16 January 2018, more than 60 financial investigators, lawyers, regulators and other specialists in anti-money laundering, cybercrime and financial intelligence took part in an expert workshop on Cryptocurrencies and Money Laundering jointly organised by the Basel Institute on Governance, Europol and INTERPOL in Basel, Switzerland.
February 2018 has seen the last iteration of the successful "Mapping and Visualizing Cross-Border Crime Project”, a partnership between the Basel Institute on Governance and two not-for-profit organisations in Romania, namely, the Journalism Development Network (JDN) and the RISE Project.
The Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) celebrated the long-term sustainability of its 2016 Train-the-Trainer project in Uganda when three selected participants conducted their first Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery workshop during 5 – 9 March 2018. These participants received certification as trainers in the ICAR approach and methodology at the end of 2016, and successfully conducted this workshop, independent of the ICAR experts, for 25 of their colleagues.
In response to the challenges facing members of the judiciary, prosecutors and investigators in curbing procurement fraud and corruption in Uganda, training experts from the International Centre for Asset Recovery conducted a five-day specialised training module on investigations into corruption in infrastructure projects and procurement.
Practitioners and policy makers from Africa and Europe met last week in Berlin, Germany, to discuss ways to further accelerate the success rate in recovering stolen assets. The event was organised by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with support from the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) and GIZ, and brought together representatives from Ethiopia, France, Germany, Jersey, Kenya, Norway, Switzerland, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and the United Kingdom.
The Basel Institute on Governance is further strengthening its global reputation for independent and practice-oriented expertise in asset recovery. On March 29, Gretta Fenner, Managing Director the Basel Institute, signed an agreement of cooperation with Ecuador’s Attorney General. The objective of the collaboration is to assist and support the Attorney General’s Office in identifying, locating, seizing and repatriating illicit assets arising from acts of corruption or the laundering of assets to the detriment of the Ecuadorian State.
In 2017, the International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) conducted a Train-the-Trainer project with the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) of Tanzania. At the conclusion of the programme, which was funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, four PCCB investigators and prosecutors were certified as trainers in “Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery”, using ICAR’s unique training methodology.
The decision that Jersey shall become a core donor to the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR) for a three-year period has been signed by Jersey’s Treasury Minister on Friday 11 May 2018. With this decision, Jersey joins Liechtenstein, Switzerland and the United Kingdom in supporting the implementation of ICAR’s Operational Strategy which has been developed jointly with ICAR’s donors and partner countries.
Procurement fraud and corruption are amongst the primary sources of corrupt income around the globe, and Tanzania is no exception in suffering from their disastrous effects. Following a recent report from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) of Tanzania that revealed that multiple projects handled by public institutions were tainted with corruption, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) was urged to initiate investigations into these projects.