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| Wednesday, 22 February 2012 22:39 |
 The Citizen Reporters Dar es Salaam. The business community has asked the government to urgently organise a stakeholders’ meeting to look into the blacklisting of Tanzania over claims of money laundering.The business leaders are anxious to see a quick solution to the crisis, which has seen the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) blacklist the country for failing to meet international standards of doing business. They asserted that the international money-laundering watchdog’s action could have serious business consequences for the country. Financial transactions to and from Tanzania would, for example, be subjected to more intense scrutiny. Ghana, Thailand, Pakistan and Indonesia are also on the FATF list released on Tuesday. Mr Mtemi Naluyaga, the chief executive officer of the Tanzania Exporters Association (Tanexa), said the FATF move would have multiple and immediate impact on both importers and exporters of goods and services. “This is because, as a nation, we have already lost the confidence our counterparts had on us,” he said. “Once they learn about this, it will further erode their trust in us. Our businesses are going to suffer as some of them may stop doing business with us because the country has failed to meet the international standards in financial management.” Blacklisting would make it even harder for the government to woo more prospective foreign investors and business persons. “In essence, this blacklisting means that it will now take longer to complete business transactions originating in or coming to Tanzania,” Mr Naluyaga said. “There will be a lot of questions asked in order to authenticate the clarity of the money used.” The Tanexa CEO argued further that the development boils down to lack of integrity and transparency in decision-making in government, which stands accused of not being keen on checking money laundering. The move has also sent ripples across local boardrooms. Mr Ali Mufuruki, chairman of the InfoTech Investment Group, described the FATF ranking as a bad development and asked the government to explain how the country got to such a state. Mr Abdukadir Mohamed, the Tanzania Air Services Limited director, said the blacklisting would affect such key economic sectors as tourism, mining and agriculture that are highly dependent on foreign exchange and international trade. “This will make the export business hard,” he said. “It’s obvious that only a few greedy Tanzanians are involved in this game, but we’re all affected as the image of the country is tarnished.” But Mr Mohamed also views the issue in more practical terms. “We need to find out where we are falling short,” he said. “For example, some people erect very expensive mansions but no one is questioning them how or from where they get the money.” The Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr Ramadhan Kijjah, told The Citizen that Tanzania has started implementing FATF’s recommendations on fighting money laundering via the Anti Money Laundering Act of 2012. “We are in the process of submitting the amended legislation to FATF,” he said. The Anti-Money Laundering law seeks to create an independent Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to specifically deal with money laundering. Tabling the amendments in the House recently, the minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr Mustafa Mkulo, said the changes would require banking and financial institutions to report to the FIU any transactions suspected to be connected to money laundering. Amendments to the legislation are also aimed at establishing an advisory committee that would draw members from both Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar. “Money stakeholders have also detected various weaknesses in the application of the law,” said Mr Mkulo, adding that the amendments would go in tandem with enforcement of the law. Mr Zitto Kabwe (Kigoma North-Chadema) said Tanzania lost $2.9billion through money laundering, tax evasion and capital flight between 2000 and 2010. The outspoken legislator said lack of political will to enforce the relevant law had made Tanzania a “mammoth” conduit for money laundering, capital flight, drug trafficking and tax evasion. Mr Kabwe said a report released in 2009 at a meeting of members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Maseru showed Tanzania and Malawi were top of the list in money laundering. “Surprisingly, Tanzania was the first country to deny the report,” he said. “This showed the lack of political will in the fight against money laundering.” The FATF blacklist now includes 17 new countries. They are: Bolivia, Cuba, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Sao Tome and Principe, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey. The grey-list includes 22 countries: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Sudan, Tajikistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Reported by Lucas Liganga and Sturmius Mtweve Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
| Last Updated on Friday, 24 February 2012 00:21 |
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