Proposed Organised Crime Bill : AML panel to ask ministries to rush bill
KATHMANDU, OCT 01 -
The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) National Coordi-nation Committee has decided to ask the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and home and law ministries to get the proposed Organised Crime Bill passed as soon as possible as the next meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is approaching.
Although Nepal’s standing has improved following endorsement of two AML-related ordinances — Mutual Legal Assistance Ordinance and Extradition Treaty — and formation of a separate Department for Money Laundering Investigation, government officials are not sure whether these moves will be enough to convince the international community of Nepal’s commitment to anti-money laundering.
The FATF, a global anti-money laundering body formed by the G-20, assesses whether a particular country has made progress to address its deficiencies in anti-money laundering and terrorist financing by effectively criminalising such acts and decides whether to blacklist it for non-compliance. It’s next plenary is scheduled to be held from October 14-19 in France.
“The committee decided to ask the PMO to get the bill passed through an ordinance as soon as possible before the next plenary of the FATF,” said Dharma Raj Sapkota, secretary of the committee which is headed by the finance secretary and includes the secretaries of the PMO, the Law Ministry and the Home Ministry, the Deputy Attorney General and the Inspector General of Police. “I am sending a letter regarding this formally to the PMO.”
During a recent meeting between officials from Nepal and the Regional Review Group (RRG) of the FATF held in Australia, the RRG officials had asked Nepal to endorse the Organised Crime Bill as soon as possible as it was one of the commitments Nepal had agreed to fulfil by 2010. “Although the political environment looks somewhat unfavourable, it is necessary to endorse the bill to avoid being questioned about Nepal’s commitment to anti-money laundering,” said Sapkota.
Prime Minster Baburam Bhattarai remarked at a function on Friday that the government would pass the Act on Organised Crime at the right time to fulfil its obligation against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Amid imminent possibilities of Nepal being blacklisted by the FATF, President Ram Baran Yadav had signed into law two ordinances while the ordinance on organised crime was not sent to him due to differences within the ruling coalition.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
