By Mbatjiua Ngavirue
WINDHOEK
The new Financial Intelligence Bill has not yet become operational, despite parliament passing it into law as far back as June 7, this year.
Spokesperson for the Bank of Namibia (BoN) Helene Badenhorst, recently made this disclosure and could not give any specific date on which the Act will become operational.
“Consultation is taking place within the banking industry and with relevant stakeholders.
“We, however, envisage that they will finalise regulations associated with the Act by early 2008, after which it should become operational.”
She said this in response to an inquiry on whether banking institutions could not have done more to protect members of the public from the recent Avosa fraud scandal.
The Avosa overseas jobs swindle was exposed beyond doubt and Kuveri Katjangua, one of the main agents selling the scheme to unsuspecting victims later confessed the scheme was bogus.
He expressed, or some might say feigned, shock at the discovery the scheme was fraudulent, claiming the masterminds behind the fraud also duped him.
The perception among the public – whether right or wrong – is that banks play an important watchdog role to ensure criminals do not use the financial system for illicit purposes.
A procession of oddly assorted, and unrelated people were able to walk into Namibian commercial banks to deposit significant amounts into foreign bank accounts for no obvious legitimate reason.
They were able to do this without raising a single alarm bell at any of the local banks.
During his annual address in early November last year Bank of Namibia Governor, Tom Alweendo, spoke at length about the planned introduction of the country’s new Financial Intelligence bill.
In terms of the Bill, the new law would create a Financial Intelligence Centre to combat money laundering based at the BoN.
Alweendo said the main responsibility of the intelligence centre would be to receive reports of suspicious transactions from banks, other “accountable institutions” and supervisory bodies.
“We are happy that the Bill has now been passed into law and we now have the right tools with which to combat money laundering,” Alweendo said at the time.
Rough estimates suggest Avosa victims may have lost as much as N$400???_?_’???_?’???_???