GOPAC,
APNAC and Parliament of Tanzania
Anti-Money Laundering and Recovery of Assets:
The Two sides of the Coin (Part I)
Technical Experts Workshop
Arusha, Tanzania
Thursday,
September 21, 2006
3:30 pm - 5 pm
Notes for
Hon. Roy Cullen, M.P.
House
of Commons, Canada
Good afternoon ladies
and gentlemen
Thank you all for being here this
afternoon to participate in today's discussion.
My
name is Roy Cullen, MP House of Commons Canada. I have been asked to chair this
panel discussion.
Purpose of today's session
is to hear from a panel of technical experts on the topic of money laundering
on the basic concepts of money laundering and terrorist financing and what global
initiatives are in place and planned to combat these growing problems. We are
going to focus also on how Parliamentarians like you can be effective partners
in this fight.
- Tomorrow Part II of this workshop will feature a
panel of parliamentarians and we will focus on the draft resolutions.
-
Introduce Panelists
- To kick this discussion off I would like to comment
briefly on the work of GOPAC in the fight against money laundering.
- GOPAC
members see and understand the connection between corruption and money laundering.
-
We believe that we need to attack both problems. Our objective is to reduce or
curtail completely the opportunity to launder money obtained from corrupt activities.
Achieving this will help to dampen the enthusiasm for corruption because the opportunities
to disguise the source of illegally obtained money will be reduced or eliminated.
At the same time, in a parallel fashion, GOPAC is addressing the root causes of
corruption and identifying the tools needed to fight this enormous problem.
- We
have developed a GOPAC AMLI proposal and presented it to the World Bank, IMF,
UN, OECD and others - the objectives of which are:
a) to engage
parliamentarians from around the world in the anti-money laundering (AML) agenda,
by developing a better understanding of how money laundering occurs and launching
an international initiative to combat it; and
b) To build political support
to effectively implement practical mechanisms to combat money laundering.
-
This proposal is available to you on the GOPAC web site.
- The ultimate
result that we are seeking is extending the anti-money laundering regime beyond
its current focus - principally in Europe and North America and to develop effective
strategies that parliamentarians can execute (e.g. promotion of international
treaties) to combat money laundering.
- We are also looking at incremental
measures that build international cooperation and awareness building (e.g. workshop
in Nairobi, participation in NATO meeting in Kiev, seminar for Balkan MP`s in
Vienna in 2005, workshop in Mexico City earlier this year, OSCE resolutions, this
session, etc.).
- GOPAC has also participated in bilateral programs with
countries like the Kyrgyz Republic to launch their anti-money laundering legislation
and agency.
- international convention on money laundering. We know that
a `chain is as good as its weakest link` Countries with poor or no anti-money
laundering regimes will attract the money launderers who will stay away from those
jurisdictions with effective controls over money laundering. We need consistency
internationally. Policies and legislation are needed as well as the resources
required to implement an anti-money laundering agency. It is for these reasons
that we have drafted for your consideration an anti-money laundering convention
which is available to you on the GOPAC web site. Some comments on the draft convention
-
- Modelled after successful international conventions or treaties like
the landmines treaty.
- On the substantive issues, the anti-money laundering
convention is based on the 40 recommendations and nine special recommendations
of the Financial Action Task Force, together with the Council of Europe Convention
on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and
the Financing of Terrorism (2005).
- Proposal is for Secretariat for
this Convention to be housed at the UN.
- GOPAC`s OSCE Resolutions
on corruption & money laundering adopted in Washington, D.C. last year at
the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
- GOPAC has asked the FATF for observer
status (correspondence on GOPAC`s web site). We met with Frank Swedlove, a Canadian
who is the incoming President of the FATF. He has encouraged us to work with the
9 FATF-Style Regional Bodies that are situated around the world. The FATF is also
considering our request for Observer Status in the FATF (answer in 2008 as FATF
currently reviewing their membership policies)
- Building on these themes,
the GOPAC Secretariat and I have formulated 5 draft resolutions that we will consider
tomorrow and Saturday.
- We have also tabled a further resolution with
respect to offshore and international banking centres for your consideration.
-
Much has been done - more needs to be done.
- GOPAC is committed to working
cooperatively with organizations like the World Bank, the IMF, the FATF, the UN,
the OECD and organizations like the International Compliance Association.
-
Our objectives are the same - to eliminate or reduce substantially the incidence
of money laundering.
- I look forward to hearing the views and vision of
our other panelists on how we can move forward together.
- Thank you.