The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) has called upon stakeholders to join forces and prevent Uganda from being relegated back to the anti-money laundering and terrorism financing grey list. The appeal comes just a year after Uganda was removed from the grey list by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary sitting in Paris in February 2024.
Addressing a weekly press conference at the Uganda Law Society on Thursday as the Chief Guest Speaker, FIA Executive Director Samuel Were Wandera emphasized the need for collective action among stakeholders, including the lawyers, police and the entire justice system. Wandera cautioned that fraudulent transactions pose a significant threat, and it’s essential to recognize that crime is a serious issue that requires a united response.
Wandera revealed that there are 22 crimes committed specifically to generate proceeds, and criminals are constantly finding new ways to evade detection. However, he expressed confidence in Uganda’s framework to detect and prevent these crimes.
According to Wandera, the FATF is always concerned about whether Uganda has a solid legal framework and institutions in place to enforce laws and detect crimes. He said all these are in place and that although they cannot stop financial crimes from taking place in the country, they have cthe apacity as a country to detect and confiscate proceeds of crime.
Uganda is set to undergo another assessment in 2028 to evaluate its compliance with the 40 recommendations set by the FATF.
According to the FATF recommendations, Uganda needs to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) framework by implementing a risk-based approach, developing a national AML/CFT policy, improving transparency and cooperation with international bodies, and enhancing financial institution supervision.
Failure to meet these standards could result in Uganda being reinstated on the grey list, with potentially devastating consequences for the country’s economy.
But Wandera said the standard requires the legal profession to enforce AML CFT requirements because this is a profession, he noted can be exploited by criminals to launder proceeds. He said currently, they are seeing a gap in terms of the supervisory framework and believes that the Law Council and the Uganda Law Society have their respective roles to play in this.
Wandera noted that there is a need to harmonize and create a Supervisory Authority to ensure that the AML CFT are housed under one entity with the mandate provided in law. He said this is something he believes he will work with the Attorney General to have a clear framework before Uganda goes back for the 2028 assessment, and that some law firms by lawyers are not registered with the FIA.
Wandera added that Uganda is grappling with numerous gold scams, many of which he said have been facilitated by lawyers. To combat this issue, Wandera urged lawyers to conduct thorough checks on suspicious transactions. If they remain uncertain, they can report their concerns to the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).
Wandera also advised lawyers to exercise due diligence when dealing with gold transactions. He assured them that the FIA will support them in their efforts to prevent gold scams, although they are not obligated to share their findings.
However, Wandera warned that if a transaction is found to be related to criminal activity, legal action will be taken.
“So lawyers are expected to maintain digital records of client interactions and transactions for a minimum 10 years, and therefore that will include client identification documents and records of their financial transactions through partnership or your company, or if you are also collecting and so proclaim so you need to take those.”, said Wandera.
Another Guest speaker, Lawyer Aziz Kitaka, talked about the fight against online lending apps, which he said should not be looked at in a vacuum. He noted that digital lending applications engage in illegal advertising activities like using Artificial intelligence (AI-generated images to publish fake customer testimonials.
These, he noted, are against the UCC Advertising Standards of 2019.”Kitaka added that Google has policies which allow it to accept court orders.”For the illegal digital lending apps, there is a need to obtain court orders to have them blocked. The case of Google Inc. versus. Equustek Solutions set a global precedent that courts have jurisdiction to make orders against search engines to stop illegal activities on the internet”, said Kitaka.
He noted that the Court issued a global de-indexing order to the effect that certain information be completely removed from the internet, so that it cannot be found or accessed by anyone.
Software Engineer Ronald Leornald Egesa said that lawyers shouldn’t be trained to perpetrate injustice in the name of chasing money. He said that as they go on with their duties as legal experts, they need to act in good faith as good citizens and not act out of greed.
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