The Financial Intelligence Authority has intensified its efforts to fulfill a set of conditions that were set by the Financial Action Task force (FATF) - the global money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog - for Uganda to exit the grey list.
Uganda was placed on the FATF watch list in February 2020 and subsequently on the European Union money laundering watch list, which raised a few eyebrows, with many Ugandans fearing how being on the list reflects on the economy.
The FIA, however, has come out to share an update on how far Uganda has gone in fulfilling some of the requirements that were set by the FIA. Speaking to the press recently, Sydney Asubo, the executive director of the FIA, addressed concerns on if Uganda was at risk of slipping into the money laundering blacklist. He also provided an update of the work being done behind the scenes to address the issues that had been raised by FATF.
"When Uganda was assessed in 2016, a number of issues were identified. And when a second assessment was done, a review was done on how we scored in 2016 in February 2020. A number of issues had to be addressed but some were not addressed. There were 22 particular action items," Asubo said.
According to Asubo, their interactions with FATF happen every four months, with the last meeting said to have happened in January 2022. The FIA managed to address six of the action items on the FATF list in January and Asubo believes that more progress will be made when the May report is released.
"As at January, we had addressed six of those issues and there were 16 pending. We are optimistic that from our engagements that we had in Dakar, Senegal in May, there will be more improvements."
A series of discussions will happen in June to discuss the progress that the FIA has made between January and May. Asubo says that the FIA will be allowed to present their counter arguments before the release of Uganda's latest status in mid-June.
Information on the FATF website shows that when a country is grey-listed, it is placed under increased monitoring. It means that the country has committed to resolve swiftly the identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes.
Matia Kasaija, the minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, has spearheaded a direct line of communication between Uganda and the FATF in a bid to liaise with the body to come up with strategies to help Uganda come up with a solution to remove them from the grey list. One of those strategies includes the creation of a taskforce, whose role is to advise the minister on policy and operational matters in trying to fight money laundering in Uganda.
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That task force is comprised of many organisations, including government ministries, departments and agencies, among others. Asubo adds that the progress that was made by the taskforce was derailed by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to slow coverage of action items on the FATF list, something that earned them a grace period.
"Some of the action plan items required guidance from cabinet and parliament and as you know, these were impacted because Uganda went into general elections and for some significant period of time, we didn't have sittings of cabinet and parliament. For example, those action plan items, which required the amendment of laws like the Companies Act and the Anti-terrorism Act have been delayed."
Asubo also said a lot of effort is being put into training Ugandan law enforcement on how to handle money laundering. And because it was previously not considered to be a crime in Uganda, some of the trained officials are undertaking refresher courses.
Progress has also been made in prosecution of money laundering cases in Uganda despite the fact that the cases take long in court, according to Asubo.
"These cases take time. On average, these cases take two to three years to investigate. Some of the cases we report are still in the pipeline. In two to three years, the statistics will definitely increase. I think we have had about 10 convictions now."
