FIA launches anti money laundering system to curb financial related crimes

The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) has said much as forex bureaus and gold trade are the highest contributors to illicit financial flows in Uganda, it is more determined to leverage digital innovations to curb money laundering.

The remarks were made as the authority launched the Go Anti Money Laundering System (goAML) that will allow for e-registration and e-certificate issuance.

Addressing a news conference on Monday in Kampala, the executive director of FIA, Sydney Asubo without going into details, said the system will help to fight all financial related crimes such as money laundering among others.

He said the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013 (as amended) provides for the registration of all accountable persons as one of the general powers of the authority.

As such, regulation 4 of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations, 2015 requires every accountable person to register with the authority, within one year from the commencement of the regulations, or such other period as the authority may specify.

"This platform has basically assisted the authority in the migration of all our manual operations and processes to electronic operations and processes. This included migration from the manual process of registration," he said.

Since 2015, the authority has been manually registering all accountable persons following the process prescribed in regulation that requires the accountable persons to manually fill in form 1 in the schedule to the AML Act, 2013..

Asubo told the Nile Post that over time, the need to adopt an electronic mode of doing business became eminent and as such the authority procured the goAML System from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

He noted that this electronic registration provides a seamless and convenient registration process for accountable persons that eliminates the need to manually fill in paper forms and deliver them physically to their offices.