Egypt is joining forces with others to combat money laundering, writes Sherine Nasr Since money laundering (ML) is one of the most effective tools of corruption, Egypt has taken strides on the path to combat ML and fraud crimes. As part of its internationally- recognised efforts in this field, Cairo hosted the second International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)'s working group meeting entitled the "Fight Against International Money Laundering and Corruption" on 30-31 July. "This is the first time to host a working group meeting of 11 INTOSAI member states," revealed Gawdat El-Maltt, head of the General Auditing Authority. "The aim is to exchange views on systems, policies and strategies applied in these countries to combat ML and promote principles of transparency and accountability." Delegates convened in Cairo represented the USA, Britain, Germany, Mexico and Indonesia to name some. According to El-Maltt, the authority plays a most active role in combating ML and fighting corruption and fraud crimes in the country. "Our main task is to protect public funds through full collaboration with other supervisory and security bodies," stated El-Maltt, adding that the authority has distinguished cadres that are continuously being entrusted with monitoring financial and technical issues of highly complex nature. Founded in 1953, INTOSAI, has grown from 34 countries to a membership of 180 countries. They all seek to promote sound financial management and overall accountability in their member states. "We are all united to fight corruption in our countries," said Anwar Nasution, chairman of the Audit Board in Indonesia during the opening session. Although Egypt's history with combating ML is not a long one, its serious efforts have earned it recognition of international ML authorities. Only seven years ago, Egypt was on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of non-cooperative countries, namely those who were seen as uncooperative with efforts against ML and, later, Terrorist Financing (TF). According to 48 FATF recommendations, Egypt's legislative framework at the time was not complying with these standards. FATF was created in 1989 by the G7 as a policy-making body, working to generate the necessary political will to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms in different areas. It is an inter-governmental body whose task is to develop and promote national and international policies to combat ML and TF. Typically, lack of cooperation from FATF's viewpoint manifests itself as unwillingness or inability to provide foreign law enforcement officials with information relating to bank accounts, brokerage records, customer identification and beneficial owner information relating to such banks, brokerage accounts and other financial vehicles commonly used in ML. While the FATF's blacklist does not imply any formal sanctions, any jurisdiction placed on the list finds itself under intense financial pressure. By 2002, however, Egypt had caught up with FATF requirements by issuing a law combating ML and created an independent ML unit, with full authority to receive records on fraud and ML crimes and take the necessary measures. Its standing improved dramatically by being taken off FATF's blacklist. Currently, Egypt is a member of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF). MENAFATF is an independent cooperative regional body which comprises 14 Arab countries. It was established in 2004 to pursue the goals and rules agreed upon by consensus among member states to combat ML. The regional task force helps members adopt and implement recommendations, as well as relevant UN treaties and agreements dealing with ML. Members also work together to identify ML issues of a regional nature, and share experiences of these problems to develop regional solutions in dealing with them. Apparently, the situation in Egypt is not as dramatic as the case is in Indonesia that has been ranked as one of the world's most corrupt countries. According to Nasution, Indonesia ranks the 143rd on the list of British- based Transparency International's global corruption index. To overcome the crisis, Indonesia has adopted five policy measures which aimed at combating corruption. Among these was to replace the authoritarian political system with a democratic system, to grant broader autonomy to local government at sub-province levels, to form an independent corruption eradication commission to prosecute corrupters and take preventive measures against them and to establish a special court for corruption to process corruption cases. "Although we still have a long way to go, these efforts and others are bearing fruit as more aggressive actions are now being taken against corruption," said Nasution.
