ICPC To Participate In AU Meeting On Asset Recovery In Ethiopia

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and other government anti-corruption and asset recovery agencies are to participate in a continental meeting on asset recovery holding in Ethiopia.

The meeting which is to take place in Addis Ababa, starting from 3rd to 4th November 2022, is meant to draft a legal framework for asset recovery.

At the meeting, a proposal by African States to come up with a comprehensive approach for the implementation of the Asset Recovery approach in a holistic way will be discussed. 

According to the Executive Director of the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), Ms Souad Aden-Osman, the proposal highlights the key legal issues that African States face in recovering their assets.

She said the proposal would recommend innovative ways in which an escrow account or multiple escrow accounts could be established for recovered African Assets. 

She explained that this is to preserve and grow assets of African origin kept outside the respective countries at great loss, and to the detriment of the development aspirations of African States.

“It is expected that the high-level meeting will consider the drafted legal framework for asset recovery and the proposal for setting up escrow accounts as working papers for their technical review.

“The two documents will then be forwarded to the leadership of the African Union Commission for consideration by the relevant organs of the AU in view of their adoption and galvanization to AU Member States,” Aden-Osman noted.

She also added that the two instruments to be proposed by the AU Commission to the African Union Member States would strengthen the implementation of the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR).

The implementation, she said, will take place at national, sub-regional and regional level by providing African countries with ready to use tools for pursuing illicit financial flows.