By Foday Moriba Conteh
The National Civil Registration Authority ( NCRA) has on the 15th March, 2022 partnered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Ministry of Finance in Sierra Leone in an effort to combat Financial Crimes, Money Laundering and Terrorists Financing in the country.
This new partnership brings together the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA), an institution that provides Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Digital Identity Services in Sierra Leone, and the country’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a unit of the Ministry of Finance that develops financial intelligence in order to detect money laundering or terrorists financing activities in Sierra Leone, to fight financial crimes in the country.
It is expected that in the partnership, the FIU will rely on the NCRA’s 85% plus Identity Data on the population of Sierra Leone to help provide financial intelligence using the identity of persons involved in Financial Crimes. The partnership will also enable NCRA to share identity data of designated persons detected for Financial Fraud and Terrorists Financing with the FIU to aid the investigation process.
In Sierra Leone, the FIU receives the UN “Lists” of designated persons from MoFAIC for freezing, seizing, or confiscation of terrorist funds/assets and FIU provides intelligence and forwards to appropriate authority for investigation as per the FIU procedures and mandates.
The partnership will make a significant difference in promoting information sharing to combat Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing in the country, in line with international standards and protocols.
Director General of NCRA, Mohammed M. Massaquoi expressed satisfaction and willingness to work with the FIU to support such a Public Administration and good Governance activities in the fight against Financial Crimes using Digital Identity Data in Sierra Leone. He further cited that NCRA has been collaborating with other institutions to support them with identity data; for the issuance of Driver’s License, Tax payer’s verification, sanitizing Government payroll, recruitment into the public and civil service, Social Security among others.
“In our collective efforts to combat money laundering terrorists financing, we require credible information from other institutions and reporting entities. It cannot be gain-said that NCRA is one very important institution in this regard,” said David Borbor, Director of FIU as he signs the partnership agreement on behalf of the FIU.
He added that “in the process of Identity Verification, FIU would rely on the NCRA as an independent source of credible information for identity issues. This will help FIU in building up profiles necessary for the collection of intelligence and drafting of intelligence reports to disseminate to appropriate law enforcement institutions for proper investigations.
Speaking with the Senior ICT and Identity Manager of NCRA Moses Vibbie, he said the two institutions are collaborating in a responsible way to share information that will aid investigation into Financial Crimes and Terrorist Financing, in a secure way and in line with best practices and applicable laws. Moses added that identity data will only be shared for individuals declared or suspected of financial crimes by the FIU, this is to maintain data Protection and Privacy.
According to Basel System Report (2021), the estimated amount of money laundered globally in one year is from 2 – 5% of global GDP, or equivalent of $800 billion – $2 trillion in current US dollars. 50% money laundering activities go undetected globally. 62% compliance officers believe that criminal activity around money laundry and terrorist Financing is getting harder to spot, hence the increase.
This indeed calls for Governments to put strict measures in place and take necessary actions in order to curb this global financial Crime.
The Head Directors from the two institutions appended their signatories witnessed by the legal representatives of the two collaborating institutions. The NCRA and FIU partnership denotes the Government of Sierra Leone’s commitment to fighting crime and fraud in the country.
