AG urges regional organisations to work together

Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Dale Marshall says there is need to adopt and develop holistic responses to issues of corruption, money laundering, tax havens, tax evasion, drug trafficking, human trafficking and terrorist financing.

He believes that part of this might mean that regional organisations work more closely together, not only to provide much needed data, but to shape their common approaches and responses.  

His comments came during the 48th Caribbean Financial Action Task Force Plenary Conference (CFATF), which continued at the Hilton Barbados Resort, yesterday.

According to the AG, “Time and time again there has been the call for research papers on indices of regional performance and on emerging issues. Today I am reiterating that call. We need to develop typologies based on our own regional experience so that we can inform and strengthen our frameworks while serving as a herald for success stories.”

“Maybe the time has come when we need to let specific representatives, specific delegations take the lead on particular issues… This is already being done at the CARICOM level and is worth discussing at the CFATF level. This is particularly the case in the face of moving targets and multiple assessments of our national frameworks.”

The AG therefore suggested that they not only engage international partners, but must also do so regionally, especially with those who face human resource and capacity constraints.

“These Mutual Evaluation rounds are onerous, requiring a high degree of personal commitment and participation and we should therefore endeavor to share technical expertise wherever we can,” he said, acknowledging that some members have successfully passed through various rounds of evaluation and their expertise, honed by effort and experience, should be a resource available to those yet to reach those levels.

Marshall added that the sharing of expert resources also helps with capacity building nationally and regionally.

“We must prioritise our needs so as to maximise any training opportunities offered to the region and insist that training of trainers becomes an integral part of training assistance packages.” (TL)