The civil society organisation‚ Corruption Watch (CW) has written a letter to Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba requesting clarification on the date on which the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) amendment act will begin.
This includes the timeframes for the finalisation of regulations and schedules required to support the implementation of the act.
The organisation expects the response by Friday‚ June 9.
In the letter it noted that President Jacob Zuma signed the FIC amendment act into law on April 29 this year.
“Gigaba is responsible for determining the date on which the legislation must commence‚ but Corruption Watch is concerned that sufficient measures might not have been put into place in order for the legislation to become effective before the next review of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)‚ and whether these deficiencies will result in South Africa failing to meets its FATF obligations‚” said David Lewis‚ executive director of CW
According to the letter‚ in 2009 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)‚ of which South Africa is a member‚ identified a number of deficiencies in South Africa’s ability to address money laundering and combat terrorism‚ largely due to inadequate legislation on customer due diligence and record-keeping.
It went on to say that they understand that regulations must be brought into force to enable the implementation of the legislation; and that certain schedules of information relating to domestic prominent influential persons must be compiled in order to support such implementation.
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