Sri Lankan authorities have been instructed by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to clear administrative and legal roadblocks that have set back its Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) evaluation, in preparation for the third Mutual Evaluation on Anti-Money Laundering, according to a statement released by the Government.
This process includes expediting legislation, addressing critical human resource shortages, and halting the rotation of key officers, a statement quoting President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has said.
The President, according to the statement, has instructed that immediate steps be taken to address the current staff shortages, for which the feasibility of rehiring experienced retired officers from relevant institutions on one-year contracts is to be explored.
He had also instructed corrective action to resolve the problematic situation caused by a single officer handling multiple positions and directed that promotions and recruitments be expedited through consultations with the Public Service Commission. To prevent setbacks resulting from the continuous rotation of officers trained for the evaluation process, he had also ordered that a circular be issued to keep the relevant officers in their current positions until the completion of the evaluation in November.
A special discussion on Sri Lanka’s Third Mutual Evaluation concerning international standards on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) was held Tuesday (3) at the Presidential Secretariat, under the patronage of the President.
The President highlighted that prior to demonstrating our integrity to outside entities, the Government must first take responsibility for its actions and dedicate itself to good governance, while inviting all stakeholders to properly and responsibly fulfill their institutional duties toward that objective.
Global policies on AML/CFT are formulated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF also develops policies to prevent the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. To this end, the FATF has issued 40 recommendations that all countries are required to follow. Through these recommendations, an in-depth assessment is carried out of each country’s systems established to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, their effective implementation, the legal framework, allocation of resources, effectiveness and the capacity of relevant stakeholders. This assessment process is referred to as the Mutual Evaluation
This is a national-level evaluation process, coordinated by the relevant regional supervisory body. Accordingly, the oversight of Sri Lanka’s evaluation is conducted by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). Advisory support is provided by former Executive Secretary of the group Dr. Gordon Hook. Domestically, around 25 stakeholder Government institutions are involved in this process, with coordination handled by the Financial Intelligence Unit established within the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
The Operational Committee on AML/CFT appointed by the President, monitors the progress of the action plans that these stakeholders are required to implement during the evaluation process.
The discussion also addressed Sri Lanka’s previous experiences with this evaluation in 2006 and 2014-2015, including the failure that led to the country being internationally Greylisted in 2017. Given that the current Government is providing strong political leadership to restore and reinforce Sri Lanka’s credibility on the international stage, the need to prioritise this programme nationally and commit fully to its successful implementation was also emphasised during the discussion.