Sat December 24, 2011 01:30AM

http://www.awoko.org/2011/12/23/news-laws-to-fight-money-laundering-terrorism-passed-by-parliament/

At the Fifth Session of the Third Parliament which began in October and will continue until late next year, an Anti- Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism Act were passed while a new Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) with powers to request and obtain any information that it considers relevant to an unlawful activity including money laundering and financing of terrorism was also passed as part of the Bank of Sierra Leone Act, 2011.

According to new Act, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) may request and obtain any information that it considers relevant to an unlawful activity, money laundering activities or financing of terrorism and that is publicly available, including commercially available databases or information that is collected, or maintained or stored in databases, maintained by Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The FIU may enter the premises of a reporting Agency during business hours to inspect any record kept under section 41 and may ask questions relating to the record make notes or copies of any records relevant to their investigation or enquires.

The FIU further has powers to disclose any report or information derived from the report or received from elsewhere to an institution or agency of a foreign state or an international organization established by Governments of foreign states, if on the basis of its analysis and assessment it has reasonable grounds to suspect that the report or information will be relevant to investigating or prosecuting a money laundering or terrorist financing offence.

The FIU can also extend assistance to other countries on property tracking, monitoring and confiscating orders.

Addressing a thorny issue that has caused so much stress in the past especially for holiday makers and foreign business men travelling to Sierra Leone for the first time, the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of financing Terrorism Act states that “a person who leaves or arrives in Sierra Leone with more than thirty million Leones or its equivalent in foreign currency in cash or negotiable bearer instruments on his person or his luggage without first having reported that fact to the relevant authority commits an offence and is liable on conviction” to a fine not less than Le 10, 000, 000, 00 (if it is an individual) and in the case of a body corporate, to a fine not less than Le 20, 000, 000, 00.

The Minister of Finance told Parliament that these bills will address a number of deficiencies in existing legislation. According to him, all the bills are linked and seek “to strengthen the investigative and the prosecutorial arms of the state.”

Among the mentioned amendments, the FIU Bill will provide the Central Bank with the power to not only supervise banks finances but to monitor financial terrorism and money laundering within and outside the country.

Under this law, the Central Bank will be able to monitor bank transactions, ask questions about certain transactions with a view to investigate suspected money launderers and financial terrorists. The Bank of Sierra Leone would then refer the necessary information to the FIU.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism Act, 2011, according to Bank of Sierra Leone officials is mainly focused on addressing the physical and material elements of the money laundering offence which include the freezing of the proceeds of crime without notice, the powers to identify and trace tainted property, voidable transfers, sharing of information and suspicious actions.

A Ministry of Finance official told Awoko Business that the act will give the Bank of Sierra Leone and the government the power to identify and trace tainted property among many others “that we had problems with in the past.”

And a spokesperson at the office of the Bank Governor said the act will “ensure a secure financial infrastructure in Sierra Leone.”

“This bill is of paramount importance and it will give a back-bone to a number of deficiencies identified in the existing laws. The Governor and his team worked really hard to bring the Bank of Sierra Leone Act, 2011, and the supporting Act, to tidy up the legislation in this area and keep it one source,” the Bank of Sierra Leone spokesman said.

In a telephone interview after the bill was passed by Parliament, a Director of one of the Commercial Banks in the country welcomed the Acts, and said “the Bank of Sierra Leone Bill and the Anti-Money Laundering Act are ring-fenced, to make sure Sierra Leone and the international business community are all protected by a robust secure and effective legislative framework and financial infrastructure,” adding that “we in the banking community in Sierra Leone welcome the good work of the Bank of Sierra Leone.”

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), will be controlled by a governing body to be known as the “Inter-Ministerial Committee” and headed by the Minister of Finance, supported by the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, the Attorney-General, and the Minister responsible for Internal affairs with a Director responsible for the day-to-day affairs of the Unit and a Technical Committee, headed by the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone.