Fraudulent Companies: Code of Conduct Bureau to access CAC’s database

The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has commenced moves to grant the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) access to its database to enable it carry out seamless investigation of Companies suspected to be engaged in illicit activities.

The Registrar-General/CEO of the CAC, Mr Garba Abubakar, disclosed this when he received the Code of Conduct Bureau Chairman, Professor Muhammad Isah, on a courtesy visit to the Commission, noting that the time was ripe for the Commission to explore more areas of collaboration particularly real-time.

(The Code of Conduct Bureau is a government agency whose mission is to establish and maintain a high standard of public morality in the conduct of government business and to ensure that the actions and behavior of public officers conform to the highest standards of public morality and accountability).

Mr Abubakar explained that in view of the CAC’s strategic collaboration with other anti-corruption agencies including the EFCC, ICPC and INTERPOL, amongst others, the Commission established a dedicated unit to expeditiously handle requests for information and other services gratis.

The Registrar-General noted that any member of the public could conduct what he called a first-level check on the status of any company on the CAC Website via the Public Search window at no cost.

Speaking on the introduction of ‘Beneficial Ownership Disclosure’ or ‘Person with Significant Control’, Mr Abubakar revealed that the disclosure would soon be extended to open data format to enable investigators extract information on any Company as well as query the database to, amongst others, detect whether a particular name had featured in different Companies.

He also revealed that the Commission was working to achieve an integration with the National Identity Management Commission’s database to enable it validate the identity of anyone applying to register a Company  to eliminate incidences of submitting cloned copies of means of identification to the CAC.

The CAC Boss reiterated his commitment to ensure continued synergy and collaboration with the CCB and other Anti Corruption bodies in a bid to strengthen the anti-money laundering and anti-corruption initiatives of the Present Administration.

The Chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau, Professor Muhammad Isah expressed satisfaction with the support and cooperation which the CCB had received from the Registrar General since his assumption of Office.

Professor Isah stressed that the CAC and CCB had a lot to do in order to enhance the economic well-being of the country, noting that in view of emerging trends in Company Law, there was need for more robust collaboration between the two agencies to unravel the identities of those perpetrating various economic crimes in the country.