1 day Ago By Dale Luma
PAPUA New Guinea must in the next 12 months implement a set of recommendations to ensure its Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorists Financing (AML/CTF) systems are strengthened or risk being grey listed by the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF). Chief Secretary Ivan Pomaleu said this during the launching of the Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) workshop yesterday, that PNG has a lot of work to do in relation to AML/CTF. Mr Pomaleu indicated that a letter was written to Prime Minister James Marape by the president of FATF that PNG must demonstrate significant progress and failing to do so, PNG will be sanctioned.
PNG was grey listed in 2014 and managed to come off the FATF grey list in 2016. “The unfortunate story about the AML/CTF work is that PNG has significant amount of work that is yet to be done, as highlighted by the adopted Mutual Evaluation Report of PNG 2024,” Mr Pomaleu said. “I was informed that the President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international standard setter, has written to the Prime Minister regarding this in a letter dated 13/11/2024.
“The letter states that PNG must demonstrate significant progress by implementing the Recommended Actions in the Mutual Evaluation Report by October 2025. Failing this, PNG will be sanctioned. “I want to stress that the Marape-Rosso Government does not want the county to be sanctioned under its watch.
This government has invested greatly in the AML/CTF work and generally in the anticorruption work. “It will not be fair on the citizens of PNG if the country is sanctioned. “I urge the heads of agencies to prioritise the implementation of the Recommended Actions in the Mutual Evaluation Report.
“We will ensure the NEC holds the respective heads of agencies to account for the implementation of the Recommended Actions. “There is no place for slackness and complacency in the Public Service. “We will also ensure you have the support required to progress the implementation activities.
“Further, utilise the technical assistance that will be made available by the donor partners.”.
