In the framework of the Techincal Work Group, the representatives from the General Directorate of Taxation, from the General Directorate of Customs, General Prosecution, State Informative Service, Bank of Albania, have organized 8 meetings in which the following issues were discussed:
- Cooperation in the framework of the National Program for the control of the movement of cash in the Republic of Albania and the reduction of the use of physical money;
- Cooperation with police and coordination with the Prosecution;
- The increase of reportings from CORE and the Notary Office;
- The strengthening of cooperation with the General Prosecution and State Informative Service even during the time that the suspicious cases are being investigated;
- Organization of joint inspections with the Bank of Albania;
- Ongoing information on the progress of twinning project with the BKA;
- The increase in the speed and accuracy of the exchange of information,
- The possibility of access for FIU in the data bases of the state institutions and public registers;
- On preparing a medium term and long term national strategy for the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism
- The frequent meetings with representatives of the Money Laundering Sector in the Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crime at the General Directorate of the State Police and the Regional one of Tirana, have resulted to be very productive bearing in mind the fact that the majority of cases sent by GDPML for further inquiries have been finalized by these institutions with referrals to the Prosecution. During these meetings, which have often been weekly ones, we have discussed cases under investigation, by exchanging experience, eliminating bureaucracies, and creating a new spirit of cooperation.
- The cooperation with the Joint Investigative Unit (JIU) during this year has been very productive, reflected also in the numerous cases referred to this unit. Joint training seminars have taken place with representatives of FIU and OPDAT . FIU has offered its collaboration not only to JIU and the Prosecution of Tirana but also to the Prosecutions of Shkoder, Durres, Gjirokaster.
- Considerable work has been done by FIU in the collection and analysis of the financial information, to respond to the requests coming from the General Prosecution and the District Prosecutions. The number of these requests, like the graph shows, has been 45 during 2008. This cooperation has been offered rapidly and with professionalism, a fact which has been confirmed in the last meeting of CCFAML from the General Prosecution.
- The Chief of the Joint Investigative Unit, has commended the intensive cooperation with FIU, the initiation of many penal proceedings of those cases referred by GDPML. In this joint investigative unit, FIU has its own representative who plays the role of cordinator as well as the contact point.
- The mutual exchange of information with the State Informative Service has been on the rise especially in the second half of the year, by covering not only issues relating to financing of terrorism, but also those related to money laundering. This cooperation has been best reflected by the ongoing correspondence.
- The war against the financing of terrorism remains a priority of FIU. This has been reflected in the ongoing monitoring of the black lists updated on a daily basis by the Security Council of UNO in the banking system and other legal entitities. Cooperation has taken place with State Informative Service on different issues relating to FT. A case which was part of the suspicious cases coming from second level banks, has been referred to SIS for further inquiries (individual suspected as part of the black list) and another has been sent to police of state about an Albanian citizen who wanted to make a money transfer to Pakistan to a recepient who was suspected to be a terrorist. With the creation of a separate structure which is dependant of the Ministry of Fianance, of the Agency for the Administration of Sequestered and Confiscated Assets, cooperation has increasted between our two institutions. Through an order issued by the Ministry of Finance, an Ad Hoc group was created in order for sequestered assets to be passed to it, in conformity with the seizure orders issued from the Ministry of Fiances (as from 2004. 2008 marked the beggining of work by the Technical Group created in the framework of the Advisory Committee, a member of which is FIU too. The General Directorate of Customs has created a special sector for the cases of Money Laundering, which without any doubt will strengthen and increase the cooperation, thus enabling also the increase in the number of SARs from this directorate.
- Draft agreements have been prepared and sent to the partner institutions such as the General Directorate of Taxation and the General Directorate of Customs, in order for our Directorate to acces the data base that these directorates have. This has been the topic of many meetings taken place, and one of the tasks given by the Prime Minister during the meeting of the Committee of Coordination in the War against Money Laundering. This remains one of the priorities for 2009.
- The cooperation with GDT hasn’t been in the required levels, the SARs filed are few, the Central Unit hasn’t functioned, the contact persons have been frequently changed thus causing difficulties in the cooperation between our two institutions.
- For the first time during 2008, the High Inspectorate of the Declaration and Inspection of Assets, has sent to our Directorate a suspicious activity report. The content of the information has been accurate and with adequate elements of suspicion. During the year we have had ongoing cooperations with this institution, be it with the requests made to them or be it with the received responses.