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

The President highlighted that prior to demonstrating our integrity to outside entities, we, as a government, must first take responsibility for our actions and dedicates ourselves to good governance, while inviting all stakeholders to properly and responsibly fulfill their institutional duties toward that objective.

Global policies on AML/CFT are formulated by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The FATF also develops policies to prevent 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. Through these recommendations, an in-depth assessment is carried out of each country’s systems established to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, their effective implementation, the legal framework, allocation of resources, effectiveness and the capacity of relevant stakeholders. This assessment process is referred to as the Mutual Evaluation.

This is a national-level evaluation process, coordinated by the relevant regional supervisory body. Accordingly, the oversight of Sri Lanka’s evaluation is conducted by the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG). Advisory support is provided by Dr. Gordon Hook, the former Executive Secretary of the group. Domestically, around 25 stakeholder government institutions are involved in this process, with coordination handled by the Financial Intelligence Unit established within the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

The Operational Committee on AML/CFT appointed by the President, monitors the progress of the action plans that these stakeholders are required to implement during the evaluation process.

The discussion also addressed Sri Lanka’s previous experiences with this evaluation in 2006 and 2014 - 2015, including the failure that led to the country being internationally Greylisted in 2017. Given that the current government is providing strong political leadership to restore and reinforce Sri Lanka’s credibility on the international stage, the need to prioritize this programme nationally and commit fully to its successful implementation was also emphasized during the discussion.

During the discussion, the President inquired of officials about existing legal obstacles and delays in enacting necessary legislation and instructed that the required technical amendments be expedited without delay.

It was revealed during the discussion that human resource shortages in several government institutions have been hindering the evaluation process. The President instructed that immediate steps be taken to address the current staff shortages and that to avoid administrative delays, the feasibility of rehiring experienced retired officers from relevant institutions on a one-year contract basis be explored.

The President instructed corrective action to resolve the problematic situation caused by a single officer handling multiple positions and directed that promotions and recruitments be expedited through consultations with the Public Service Commission. To prevent setbacks resulting from the continuous rotation of officers trained for the evaluation process, he also ordered that a circular be issued to keep the relevant officers in their current positions until the completion of the evaluation in November.

The report of the Special Task Force, appointed by the President to monitor the progress of this evaluation process, is scheduled 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, 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.