Monrovia – The Vice President of Liberia Joseph Baokai has stressed the need for a strong stand against money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism measures among West Africans countries.
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh – [email protected]
Giving the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Inter-Government Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) 27th plenary meeting Boakai money laundering and terrorist financing undermines national security of West African countries.
GIABA is a specialized institution of ECOWAS that is responsible for strengthening the capacity of member states towards the prevention and control of money laundering and terrorist financing in the region.
The meeting however brought together members of the ECOWAS to talk on several issue about anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism.
At the ceremony, Vice President Boakai said, “As these criminal syndicates scheme to improve their dangerous techniques, we should move swiftly to evolve measures that will put us far ahead of them.”
He added, “I have said often that being an integral part of West Africa, Liberia should stand in optimistic anticipation for the successful outcome of forums of this nature.”
The anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime in Liberia started in November 2010 when GIABA conducted the first mutual evaluation of Liberia, the Chief Executive Officer of the financial Intelligence unit (FIU) of Liberia, Alex Cuffy said.
According to Cuffy, the mutual evaluation report which was adopted by GIABA plenary in May 2011 showed significant deficiencies in the measure Liberia put in place to counter money laundering and terrorist financing.
The FIU CEO added: “In response to the recommendations made in the mutual evaluation report, between 2012 and until now, Liberia has made significant progress by establishing the legal and regulations, the institutional and the implementation frameworks for countering money laundering and terrorist financing.”
Frederick Cherue, Minister of Justice at the program said the world has gotten complex since the advent of the 21st century. With crimes and criminals are becoming more sophisticated. Justice Minister Cherue said money laundering, global terrorism, drugs and human trafficking are on the rise.
Minister Cherue: “The world continues to spend enormous resources in trying to arrest these unwholesome activities.
The Liberian civil wars which lasted for about 14 years or thereabout provided a good environment for these activities. That is why we are happy that we in the sub-region have now decided to jointly fight against global crimes and criminals.”
Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, the Deputy Finance Minister for Budget Tanneh Brunson said the meeting was timely because of the wave of insecurity devastating the world and in particular the West Africa region.
The Deputy Minister said the fast changing environment of transnational crimes and damaging effects of money laundering and terrorist financing brighten the importance of evolving enduring strategies that would stand the test of time.
She added: “Every passing moment makes the world smaller as a result of globalization and technological advancement.”
“The complex nature of money laundering and terrorist financing is a demonstration of modern day criminality and the many ways in which they operate in practice make assessing the harm caused a formidable task,” Deputy Minister Brunson explained.
Also, the Director General of GIABA Amada Coulibaly added that West Africans governments must make all sacrifices required for the success of the fight against transnational organized crime.
“It is this end that we renew our solemn appeal to the authorities of our States and their governments to give special attention to the FIUs and their performance, as well as the resources needed for the qualitative and efficient transformation of the national institutions in charge of policies,” GIABA Director General said.