Seychelles’ mandate during presidency of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group has gone well, says Finance Minister after handing over Presidency to the Kingdom of Eswatini
September 19, 2019
Seychelles held the presidency of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, ESAAMLG, for a year since, September 2018. Details of Seychelles’ presidency and was given during a press conference at Liberty House, by the Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, Maurice Loustau Lalanne, the Secretary of State for the same Ministry, also the Chairperson of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Committee, Patrick Payet and the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Richard Rampal.
During its tenure, presided by the Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, Maurice Loustau Lalanne, two main targets were identified and implemented. Firstly, the need to recruit and boost the ESAAMLG Secretariat, based in Tanzania, to better deliver and implement its programmes. According to Minister Lalanne, there was not enough people in the ESAAMLG Secretariat to deliver on the quality of work required. Therefore, during Seychelles’ mandate, more qualified personnel especially in the finance and legal domain were recruited. Some other members were also lagging in the implementation of their programmes, and ESAAMLG members have worked with them to improve on their delivery.
The second target was to have more members join the ESAAMLG; and to date, the procedure to bring a new member on board has started. , Eritrea’s entry and will be finalized in September next year.
Earlier this month, Seychelles handed over the presidency of the ESAAMLG Council of Ministers to the Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, during the19th Council of Ministers and 38th Task Force of Senior Officials Meetings of the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group, held in the same country. Eswatini’s Minister of Finance, Mr Neal Rijkenberg is the new president, while the Director of the Financial Intelligence Unit , FIU, Mr Richard Rampal handed over the Chairmanship of the Task Force of Senior Officials to Eswatini’s FIU Head, Mr. Fitzgerald Graham.
The Seychelles’ delegation also comprised of the Secretary of State for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, Mr Patrick Payet, who also chairs the National Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Committee, as well as representatives of the other Committee members from the Financial Services Authority, Financial Intelligence Unit, Anti-Corruption Commission of Seychelles, Central Bank of Seychelles, Attorney General’s office, Seychelles Revenue Commission, Seychelles Licensing Authority and Office of the Registrar General.
At the Task Force of Senior Officials meeting, Seychelles defended its second follow-up report of progress made to address recommendations of the Second Mutual Evaluation Report adopted in September 2018, in a bid to strengthen its AML/CFT legislative Framework. This provided the team with the opportunity to also provide further updates of new developments that have taken place since the report was submitted in July this year. This includes update on the drafting of the new AML Law, as well as amendments being made to several other pieces of legislations, such as the Beneficial Ownership Act, Proceeds of Crime Act and the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Task Force was made aware of technical assistance which Seychelles is receiving from international stakeholders, such as through the US government’s Fulbright Programme, World Bank - through a Reimbursable Advisory Service (RAS) agreement, European Union, International Monetary Fund among others, not only to strengthen the relevant legislations, but also to build capacity.
The ESAAMLG Task Force of Senior Officials has urged the Seychelles authorities to ensure that the actions featured in the progress report are implemented in accordance to the submitted action plan and timelines. It is to be noted that Seychelles will submit another Follow-Up Report to the ESAAMLG in February 2020, after which the country will also be requesting a re-rating of the recommendations graded as partially compliant and non-compliant to globally accepted standards for AML/CFT. The request will be submitted in March 2020 and discussed at the Task Force of Senior Officials Meeting in September 2020. Minister Lalanne noted that Seychelles needs to work on its recommendations; “we hope that by then our regulations/legislations would be amended so as to respect FATF standards’.
A lot have also be done at national level so as to be compliant the recommendations and Minister Lalanne noted that in the 2019 National Budget, a lot of emphasis was put on the need to boost the Attorney General’s Office, especially to provide financial support, recruit more personnel, bigger office, rectify some weaknesses in the legal cadre, etc.. to ensure that they are more compliant.
Mr Richard Rampal, FIU Director, for his part reiterated that Seychelles also conducted a capacity building workshop for all partners on the Proliferation of Financing, what Seychelles is doing/has done so far.
The Secretary of State, Patrick Payet, also the Chairperson of the National AML/CFT Committee noted that work on Seychelles’ Mutual Evaluation Report has already started and is well underway.