The battle to tackle Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism has taken a sophisticated angle with the Financial Intelligence Authority-FIA, this time coming up with a Whistle blower’s portal!
This portal according to FIA Executive Director Samuel Were Wandera, is found on FIA’s website (wb.fia.go.ug) and it empowers the masses including scribes to anonymously report any suspicious activity that could be linked to money laundering, terrorist financing, or other financial crimes.
“By working together, we can leverage the power of the public to strengthen the fight against financial crime. Encourage your (media) communities to utilize the FIA whistle blower portal and play their part in safeguarding our financial system” he said while opening a FIA-Media engagement workshop on combating Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Proliferation weapons of mass destruction at Imperial Royale hotel-Kampala.
Wandera noted that fighting Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism should not be left to FIA alone, but it’s the responsibility of all Ugandans including journalists.
He said FIA acknowledges the power of mass media as key stakeholders in enhancing public awareness and understanding of matters related to money laundering.
“Your investigative efforts have significantly contributed to the identification of the proceeds of crime, exposed predicate offences such as corruption, human trafficking, counterfeit, tax evasion, wildlife trafficking, among others, some of which have led to further investigation, prosecution, adjudication and conviction of perpetrators” Wandera stated, but however, noted that more in-depth investigations are still required to unearth the Money laundering ingredient called Follow the Money!
Wandera appealled to scribes to work with FIA by prioritizing dissemination of information and knowledge regarding financial crimes in their editorial agenda, use their platforms to positively influence public perception about the benefits of compliance with the national and international financial standards and not forgetting to emphasize the risks of Uganda being among the closely monitored countries.
“At FIA, we are ready to work together in building a cadre of journalists willing to specialize in reporting financial crimes particularly money laundering and countering of terrorism financing, by empowering them with specialized knowledge, information sharing and joint training sessions” he pledged.
Wandera therefore, urged the media to interest themselves in Uganda’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws and regulations, international standards and best practices. Other areas of interest include how FIA collects, analyses and shares intelligence with competent authorities and law enforcement agencies, common indicators of financial crimes, recognizing suspicious transactions and activities, accessing and interpreting financial documents and the mandate of different players.
UGANDA STRUCK OFF FATF GREY LIST!
Meanwhile, Wandera used the occasion to call for further efforts to ensure that Uganda doesn’t lose her current status of being among those countries considered to be up to the international Anti-Money Laundering standards.
In the East African region, Uganda is the only country that has been struck off the FATF grey list with Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo and South Sudan among others all being on that infamous grey list due to failure to adhere to the laid down international Anti-Money Laundering standards.
In 2015, shortly after enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering Act and creation of FIA, Uganda underwent its second round of evaluation to assess her compliance with international anti-Money laundering standards. The ratings in both technical compliance and effectiveness in implementation of the standards was however, not good. As such; Wandera says, several recommendations were made and have since been implemented resulting into the recent scrapping of the country from the list of High Risk countries by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog in February this year. FATF sets international standards that aim to prevent those illegal activities and the trouble they cause to society!
Meanwhile, police spokesperson Rusoke Kituuma, told the workshop that the main challenge investigators face in tackling money laundering, is how to convert an allegation into evidence.
“We know about very many people but the junction we’re facing is collecting pieces of evidence to (be able) to convict someone. We’re facing that (challenge) in many areas of investigation. There are instances where people avoid transfer of money electronically to person to person. That defeats the technical capacity (of tracking) and we have to rely on human intelligence” he said.
The training was also attended by spokespersons of security agencies including UPDF, Police and Uganda Prisons.
