National Assembly members have unanimously endorsed a Bill which states that an individual found guilty of committing money laundering offences shall be sentenced to a prison term of not less than 10 years.
For corporate body, a fine of not
less than D10 million or an order for the revocation of its license of
operations shall be levied against it.
The Anti-Money Laundering and
Financing of Terrorism Bill 2012 also stipulates that an individual who
directly or indirectly commits the
offence of financing of terrorism, and is liable, shall be imprisoned for a term of not less than 10 years
and in case of corporate body to a fine of not less than D10 million.
Tabling the Bill before
parliamentarians for approval on Wednesday, Minister of Finance and Economic
Affairs Abdou Kolley said the government “remains highly committed” to fighting
the twin menaces of money laundering and financing terrorism and has therefore declared
zero tolerance for drugs abuse, money laundering and other criminal acts.
However, he noted that The Gambia,
like many other countries in the sub-region, is exposed to the risk of money
laundering due to porous borders, weak controls, the dominance of cash
transactions, as well s drug-related and other criminal flows.
Hon. Kolley said it is in cognizance
of this threat that the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money
Laundering in West Africa (GIABA) was established by ECOWAS in 2000.
“The establishment of GIABA was done
to ensure the development of strategies to protect the economies of ECOWAS
member states from the laundering of the proceeds of crime, improvement of
measures and intensifying efforts to combat the laundering of proceeds of crime
in West Africa and strengthening co-operation amongst its members,” he said.
In November 2008 the GIABA Plenary
adopted a report identifying deficiencies in The Gambia’s legal and institutional
frameworks with regard to combating money laundering and terrorism financing.
According to the finance minister,
these deficiencies include inadequate coverage of predicate offences which
needed to be broadened in line with the standards set by the Financial Action
Task Force (FATF), the principal international standard body setting on money
laundering and terrorist financing.
The Money Laundering Act 2003 of The
Gambia designated only 13 predicate offences for money laundering instead of
the minimum 20 designated categories as recommended by the FATF.
Furthermore, Hon. Kolley pointed out
that the 2003 Act falls short of international standards as it failed to
include counter-terrorist financing measures.
The Act also failed to align
thresholds for money laundering offences with international best practices, he
said, adding that even the name - the Money Laundering Act 2003 - runs contrary
to the intended purposes.
“In an effort to remedy the
situation, and bring our legislation in line with international standards,
there is need to amend the current anti-money laundering legislation, including
changing the name of the Money Laundering Act 2003 to Anti-Money Laundering Act
2012 and also upgrade it to the standard recommended by the FATF,” he
explained.
This is what necessitated the
repealing of the Money Laundering Act 2003 and the replacing of it with the
Anti-Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Bill 2012, Hon. Kolley stated.
The Bill was therefore approved by
the country’s lawmakers “in view of its non-controversial nature”.
