AG plans laws for charities

AS PART of a raft of measures against money-laundering, corruption and terrorist-financing, Attorney-General Faris Al-Rawi is planning legislation for the charity sector, according to a statement from his ministry on Wednesday.

The statement hailed the update of TT’s status in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Compliance Document at the recent 2018 FATF Plenary Meeting in Paris, France.

Saying this update is testimony to TT working expeditiously, the statement said, “Our country is well on track to meeting the targets and timelines set for the actions identified in the Compliance Document, with continued cooperation in this process both from the FATF and CFATF.”

The statement gave an account of the Government’s recent steps to improve TT’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter financing of terrorism (CFT) regime since their vow last November to work with FATF and its Caribbean arm, CFATF.

Saying a package of such anti-crime legislation will soon be introduced in Parliament, he included an attention to charities, as “a risk based approach with appropriate measures to regulate the non-profit organisation sector.”

The new laws will also improve insights into the identities of the beneficial owners of companies and legal arrangements such as trusts. The statement promised the introduction of a new regime for civil asset recovery and asset management and disposal.

The legislation will prioritise and speed up money laundering cases before the law courts. The new laws will also combat the funding of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, known as proliferation financing.

The statement said that at an operational level, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has improved its procedures and training to combat terrorist financing.

“Government also continues to give special priority to the provision of resources to agencies engaged in the fight against money laundering, terrorism and terrorist financing,”added the statement.

The statement said the Government has ensured the solutions to TT’s FATF deficiencies are harmonised with the requirements of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, and satisfies the observations from the Council of Europe, the latter whom last week met Al-Rawi and Finance Minister Colm Imbert.

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