Revisions to Draft Companies (Beneficial Ownership Information) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 – Public Consultation
Preface
Open Ownership (OO) provides technical assistance to countries implementing beneficial ownership (BO) transparency reforms, to help generate accurate data on BO that complies with international standards and meets the needs of data users across government, obliged entities, civil society and the private sector.
Since 2017, OO has worked with over 40 countries to advance implementation of beneficial ownership reforms, as well as supporting the creation of over 15 new central and sectoral registers. OO has developed the world’s leading data standard for beneficial ownership information, co-founded the international Beneficial Ownership Leadership Group, and built the world’s first transnational public beneficial ownership register.
OO welcomes the Kenyan Business Registration Service (BRS)’s amendments to make BO information available to procurement and contracting authorities over the course of procurement. OO has highlighted in detail how BO information can help prevent fraud and corruption in procurement, thereby preventing the loss of funds through illicit financial flows. The use of BO data in procurement also supports the FATF Standard’s aim to ensure a coordinated global response to prevent organised crime, corruption and terrorism, as well as the proposed requirement to make BO data available to public authorities in the course of public procurement.
OO is pleased to contribute to the public consultation on revisions to the Companies (Beneficial Ownership Information) (Amendment) Regulations. OO provided comments to an earlier draft of the regulations in 2018. We welcome the opportunity to engage in this latest review to update and strengthen the regulations.
Our contribution aims to address practical and technical considerations which need to be taken into account to enable BO data use for public procurement. Our contribution focuses on the rationale and methods for enabling timely access to adequate, accurate, and up-to-date BO information. We also provide a review of Form BOF1.
For further information or to discuss these responses in further detail, please contact [email protected].