{UAH} Crack the whip on terror funders, new body told

By ANTHONY WESAKA

Posted  Friday, September 11  2015 at  01:00

IN SUMMARY

Advice. The newly-created Financial Intelligence Authority warned that fighting illicit money transactions is not an easy task

Kampala.

The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) has been tasked to be aggressive as it kick-starts the fight against illicit money transactions that finance terrorism.

"Your authority is very crucial in the war against terrorism because without heavy financing, you can't have wide scale terrorism," Chief Registrar Courts of Judicature Paul Gadenya told Mr Sydney Asubo, the executive director of the newly-formed body, who was swearing an oath of secrecy yesterday.

"Mr Asubo and team should take a firm stand in fighting all those people engaged in financing terrorism," Mr Gadenya added.
The oath means Mr Asubo can now officially begin identifying and freezing assets of terrorists and their financiers.

FIA came into force on July 1 last year out of the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2013, whose locus is the Finance ministry.
Section 18 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act facilitates the reporting of suspicious money transactions to the FIA for investigation.

"I will task financial institutions and Forex bureaus to put in place electronic systems to detect money laundering and as the authority, we shall be doing routine inspection to make sure that there is compliance," said Mr Asubo, who is the former head of legal department at the Inspectorate of Government.

He explained that his crackdown will target banks, forex bureaus, microfinance institutions, insurance companies, the Uganda Investment Authority, real estate agents and NGOs.

To explain the nature of suspicious transactions, Mr Asubo gave an example of a civil servant whose monthly salary is Shs2 million and all of a sudden, his/her account is credited with Shs200 million.

He said the concerned bank management is obliged to report such a transaction to the Authority for investigation.

awesaka@ug.nationmedia.com

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