“Be vigilant guardians of your country’s financial institutions”- Baroness Scotland
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DPI, GUYANA, Thursday, May 3, 2018
Judges and Prosecutors of the Commonwealth member countries were today urged by Commonwealth Secretary-General, The Right Honorable Patricia Scotland QC to be guardians of their country’s financial institutions.
Commonwealth Secretary General, The Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland QC.
Scotland during her address at the opening of the CFTAF workshop for Judges and Prosecutors, being held at the Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown noted that financial institutions of almost every country around the world are under threat of being exploited for criminal and terrorist purposes.
She said the legal luminaries therefore “have a duty to be vigilant guardians, protecting the safety and well-being of all our people. They must ensure that we have the capacity to safeguarding our institutions in order to prevent them from being exploited by criminal and terrorist purposes.”
According to her, the sources of these funding are diverse and flow with “constantly shifting channels of distributions.” The SG pointed out that, when one revenue stream is closed, another is opened.
“And to stem the supply that sustains terrorism and violent extremism, we have to ensure that we have the best and the most up-to-date legal and criminal justice tools available.”
The workshop will serve as an excellent opportunity for judges and prosecutors to deepen their understanding through the exchange of ideas on the Regional and global dimensions of money laundering, terrorism financing, countering violent extremism and the recovery of the proceeds of corruption.
The training programme has come at a very critical time too. The fourth round of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism assessment of the Financial Action Task Force will involve two interrelated components; technical compliance and effectiveness.
The technical compliance component will assess whether the laws, regulation or other required measures are enforced and effective. The effectiveness component will ascertain whether the AML/CFT systems are working.
The conference concludes tomorrow.
By: Alexis Rodney.