DILI, 19 september 2023 (TATOLI)—The Asia Pacific Group (APG) Expert Team, in collaboration with the National Commission on Money Laundering, today held a workshop to evaluate Timor Leste’s efforts to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Minister of Justice, Amândio de Sá Benevides, is the Co-Chair of the National Money Laundering Commission (NMLC), together with all members of NMLC and the experts evaluation team from the APG on Money Laundering.
“This evaluation is very important for Timor Leste, to find out how Timor – Leste has a legal regime, to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing, where they come to evaluate whether Timor Leste exists or not, regarding legal regulations and legal instruments so that they can make an action if money laundering crimes and the financing of terrorism happened in Timor -Leste,” Minister of Justice Amândio de Sá Benevides told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MoFAC) Pantai Kelapa Dili, on tuesday.
He said the money laundering issue, will be resolved by the Court, Prosecutors, Police, and Investigators according to the law, related to the crimes originating from corruption, human trafficking, and others.
The meeting was held over 10 days between the APG evaluation team and various public and private sector institutions involved in eradicating money laundering and terrorist financing in Timor-Leste.
This visit over the next two weeks is an important part of a comprehensive evaluation of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) systems in Timor-Leste which is currently being carried out by the APG.
“The Government of Timor-Leste is strongly committed to further strengthening the effectiveness of the AML/CFT system and looks forward to receiving the recommendations from the team regarding the best way to do this,” said Benevides.
Meanwhile, the Director of Central Bank Timor-Leste (BCTL), Maria Sarmento, said that the assessment, or “joint evaluation”, was carried out by 10 expert teams from APG consisting of legal, financial and law enforcement experts and also the APG Secretariat in Sydney, Australia.
“APG provides recommendations to Timor-Leste to improve the AML and CFT system or regulations, and they also see Timor-Leste’s progress in complying with international standard regulations,” She said.
It said the evaluation is a core requirement of APG membership, and APG has evaluated 32 of its 42 members based on the current evaluation round APG will submit a report at its annual meeting, which will be held in July 2024.
Timor-Leste’s involvement in the evaluation process was coordinated by NMLC, under the leadership of Unidade de Informação Financeira (UIF) – Timor-Leste’s financial Intelligence Unit. Timor-Leste joined the APG, as a full member in July 2008, having previously been assessed in 2011 – 2012.
Journalist: Camilio de Sousa
Editor: Nelia B
