Sierra Leone has made some progress in combat Money Laundering (ML), Terrorist Financing (TF), and Proliferation Financing (PF) in accordance with international standards as prescribed in the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) report.
The report projected forty recommendations and eleven Immediate Outcomes (IOs) which were to be instituted by member states.
Financial Intelligence Unit is responsible for coordinating national effort in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.
It could be recalled that the GAIBA Technical Commission Plenary held its 34th session at Somone in Senegal from 2nd – 11th December, 2020, in a bid to evaluate how member states including Sierra Leone complied with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in implementing its recommendation.
Director for FIU, David Borbor in a press conference held on Monday March 1, 2021, said that Sierra Leone passes it GAIBA’s second assessment after been evaluated based on the Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) scope which was adopted by the GAIBA Ministerial Committee (GMC) to ensure effectiveness.
“Till date 11 of the 17 GAIBA member states have been evaluated under the second round of evaluations. The mutual Evaluation Report of six countries (Ghana, Burkina Faso Cape Verde, Mali, Sierra Leone and Senegal) have been discussed, adopted and published while others are at various level of process,” Borbor said.
He stated that member states of GIABA agreed to subject themselves to the assessment process in conformity with international standard for preventing money laundering and financing of terrorism as enshrined in Articles 12 to 14 of its statutes.
“The assessment comprises two inter-related components one dealing with technical compliance and the other on effectiveness. The technical compliance deals with whether countries have implemented the specific requirement of the FATF recommendations and law enforcement. Effectiveness assesses the extent to which a country achieved its implementation of the recommendation and the extent to which a country enforcement institutions help in producing expected results,” Borbor said.
He cited that the GAIBA report also highlighted that Sierra Leone have taken informed steps in instituting findings of the 2007 Mutual Evaluation Report with its ever-evolving landscape to improve its framework, adding that Sierra Leone have re-enacted the Anti-Money Laundering Act and Combated Terrorism Financing.
The Manager for Research Policy and Cooperation, Franklin W.O.Campbell stated that Sierra Leone has implemented a system that is moderately effective, wherein moderate level of effectiveness has been achieved in the area of understanding the risk and the national co-ordination of financial policy.
“However fundamental improvements are required in the areas of confiscation. Terrorism financing and Money laundering investigation and prosecution regarding the parallel investigation should be effective,” Campbell said.
By George M.O.Williams
03/03/2021. ISSUE NO: 8013