Participants of the two-day capacity-building training
By Fatou Sillah
Gambia Participates, in partnership with the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), held a two-day capacity-building training for journalists and civil society organizations, aimed at strengthening transparency and accountability through effective asset recovery practices. The training took place at a hotel in Kololi from Tuesday.
The event, themed “Strengthening Transparency and Accountability Through Asset Recovery,” forms part of Gambia Participates’ ongoing mission to promote good governance and fiscal transparency. Participants were introduced to the fundamentals of asset recovery, with particular emphasis on the critical role of the media and civil society in tracking illicit financial flows and holding public officials accountable.
In his keynote address, Marr Nyang, founder of Gambia Participates, highlighted the indispensable role of investigative journalism in the fight against corruption. He encouraged media professionals to remain vigilant in uncovering financial crimes and emphasized the importance of public access to information regarding seized or forfeited assets.
“Asset recovery or sliced asset finance flows could actually take place both domestically and also outside the borders of the country. But tracing those assets becomes very difficult. Someone else gets his hands dirty, learns the money, purchases an asset, puts it in the hands of somebody else, or in the name of someone else, and you, the government, find it very difficult to trace it,” Nyang explained.
He further highlighted that citizens are entitled to knowledge about the assets forfeited by public officials, urging the participants to apply the lessons learned during the training in their professional endeavors.
“People’s taxpayers’ money is what runs the government. So people need to know that collective asset that belongs now to the state and the people; how did you dispose of it? Who bought it? At what value? And the one that was disposing of that asset—did the person actually have any vested interest in it?
“And those that are responsible for the management of those assets, did they benefit in any way, shape, or form? We want to know whether there is any related conflict of interest or fraudulent practices in the way those assets have been disposed of, or is someone else favored to buy that asset,” he said.
The training sought to equip participants with the tools to enhance their role in promoting transparency and to encourage a proactive approach to tackling corruption.