Economic Governance Report I: Institutional Architecture to Address Illicit Financial Flows

Abstract

This premier Economic Governance Report (EGR I) assesses the institutional architecture pledged by African governments for blocking illicit financial flows (IFFs) and recommends initiatives to strengthen it. The report’s findings indicate that IFFs continue to thrive, though African countries have tried to establish dedicated institutional frameworks for combatting them in the main channels of trade, investments and financial flows. The IFFs include corruption, money laundering, trade mis-invoicing to move money illicitly and tax fraud (including corporate tax dodging). The report encourages more inter-agency collaboration, coordinated reporting, the removal of duplicated and competing mandates, and consistent political support for institutional reforms to combat IFFs. The report examines how domestic governance institutions relate to the channels through which IFFs occur and the motivations for IFFs. Those institutions have individual roles, relations with other institutions and responsibilities to the international architecture combatting IFFs, given the essential character of IFFs as cross-border flows. The report adopts a whole of system approach to institutions, highlighting the increasing use by IFF perpetrators of sophisticated and complex financial and commercial arrangements to disguise the money trail.