Govt first and foremost committed to ensuring good governance – President

A special discussion on Sri Lanka’s Third Mutual Evaluation in relation to international standards on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) was held this morning (03) at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Addressing the discussion, the President emphasized that before demonstrating integrity to external entities, the government must first take responsibility for its own actions and remain firmly committed to ensuring good governance while inviting all stakeholders to properly and responsibly fulfil their respective institutional duties toward achieving this objective. 

Global AML/CFT policies are formulated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which also develops policies aimed at preventing 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.

Based on these recommendations, a comprehensive assessment is conducted of each country’s systems established to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. This includes an evaluation of effective implementation, legal frameworks, and allocation of resources, overall effectiveness and the capacity of relevant stakeholders. This assessment process is referred to as the Mutual Evaluation.

The Mutual Evaluation is a national-level process coordinated by the relevant regional supervisory body. Accordingly, Sri Lanka’s evaluation is overseen by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). Advisory support for the process is provided by Dr. Gordon Hook, former Executive Secretary of the APG.

At the domestic level, approximately 25 government stakeholder institutions are involved in the evaluation, with overall coordination undertaken by the Financial Intelligence Unit operating under the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. 

In addition, the Operational Committee on AML/CFT, appointed by the President, monitors the progress of the action plans that these institutions are required to implement during the evaluation period, according to a statement issued by the President’s Media Division (PMD).

The discussion also reviewed Sri Lanka’s previous experiences with Mutual Evaluations conducted in 2006 and during 2014–2015, including the failure that resulted in the country being internationally Greylisted in 2017.

Given that the current government is providing strong political leadership to restore and strengthen Sri Lanka’s credibility on the international stage, the importance of prioritizing this programme at the national level and committing fully to its successful implementation was emphasized during the discussion, the PMD statement said.

During the meeting, the President inquired into existing legal obstacles and delays in enacting necessary legislation and instructed officials to expedite the required technical amendments without delay.

It was also revealed that shortages of human resources in several government institutions have adversely affected the evaluation process. The President directed that immediate measures be taken to address staff shortages and instructed officials to explore the feasibility of rehiring experienced retired officers from relevant institutions on a one-year contractual basis to prevent administrative delays.

The President further instructed that corrective action be taken to address issues arising from individual officers holding multiple positions and directed that promotions and recruitments be expedited through consultations with the Public Service Commission. To avoid disruptions caused by the continuous transfer of officers trained for the evaluation process, he also ordered the issuance of a circular to retain relevant officers in their current positions until the completion of the evaluation in November.

According to the statement, the report of the Special Task Force (STF) appointed by the President to monitor the progress of the evaluation process is expected to be submitted within the next two weeks.

The session was attended by distinguished officials including Minister of Justice and National Integration, Harshana Nanayakkara, Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Harshana Suriypperuma, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, Air Vice Marshal Sampath Thuyacontha (Retd) and Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Aruni Ranaraja, along with other Ministry Secretaries. 

Also present were Attorney General Pärinda Ranasinghe, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Priyantha Weerasuriya, Chief of National Intelligence Major General Nalinda Niyangoda and heads of relevant institutions including the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and the Legal Draftsman’s Department.

--PMD--