The Big Island is struggling to meet the FATF recommendations. The establishment of a collection agency is expected.

Can do better. The Big Island, in its anti-money laundering policy, remains on the status of moderate player. The situation was exposed yesterday in Anosy by the Malagasy financial intelligence unit (Samifin), during the capacity building workshop for the first concerned in this fight. “Samifin was set up in 2008. It was in 2016 that the first arrests were made against money launderers. Since then, an improvement has been observed in the application of legislation governing money laundering. However, no country can boast of having 100% control over this fight against money laundering,” laments Lamina Boto Tsaradia, director general of Samifin.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body, develops recommendations as well as international standards in the fight against money laundering. It is on the basis of these recommendations that the performance of a country is assessed. “One recommendation out of the eleven recommended in the short term by the FATF has been achieved by Madagascar at a moderate level. The state of performance of the Big Island on the rest of the recommendations is still below the objectives expected by the FATF”, adds the DG of Samifin.

Suspicious transactions

One way for this official to advocate the improvement of laws governing the fight against money laundering. During 2018, Samifin recorded one hundred and eighty-one cases of suspicious transaction reports. Last year this figure fell to one hundred and sixty-four. An improvement noted despite the shortcomings allowing the response services to optimize their actions. The law on the recovery of illicit assets should be among the first “urgent” laws. Unfortunately, the country is cut off from this law. The problem is that the text has still not been published. The Financial Intelligence Services are firmly awaiting the adoption of the application decrees which must detail the text and the establishment of a collection agency responsible for managing the assets seized for the benefit of the State.