Trinidad: Time for action on money laundering

Reading Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira's contribution to the debate on the Act to establish the Financial Intelligence Unit led me back to the Strategic Services Agency (SSA), set up in 1995 as part of the State's global money laundering commitments. The SSA was established to "act as an office for centralising information that could facilitate the detection and prevention of illicit traffic in narcotic drugs." It was also set up to "assist in identifying sophisticated drug-related criminal activity and those who engage in it and help the law enforcement effort by identifying links between individuals and organisations involved in the drug trade".

Those were the early days of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and the global efforts to dismantle the world of secret banking which facilitated money laundering. The Minister did not mention all the legislative and administrative arrangements already in place for dealing with the money which fuels the killing on the streets.

The Minister also did not mention that the legislation is intended to complete the country's long outstanding international commitments to dealing with money laundering. Instead the Minister behaves as though this legislation is newly discovered ground and will be, in the way politicians usually assume, the magic wand to wave crime away.

The problem, Minister, has not been the lack of a framework but the lack of the will to clean up the town. Perhaps she should also read the most recent publication on the role of sport, and soccer in particular, in money laundering and consider including pro and semi-pro clubs in the scope of the legislation.

Let's hope the horses have not bolted.