Tag Archives: Malawi Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA)

Malawi

Malawi Parliament reconvenes for mid-year budget review early amidst pressure to pass Financial Crime Bill

Maravi Post correspondent

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The country’s national assembly mid-year budget review deliberations have been slated for February 6 to March 2, 2017 with financial crime bill featuring highly on the agenda, Maravi Post can reveal.

Malawi Parliament reconvenes Feb 6, 2017 for mid-year budget review

In a press statement released early this week, The Speaker Richard Msowoya is summoning all cabinet ministers with their deputies and members of Parliament (MPs) to attend the meeting in the capital Lilongwe.

Parliament is in haste to host budget review proceedings amidst panic to pass the financial bill whose deadline is February 15 that failure to do so the country risks being blacklisted on the international financial market.

Maravi Post understands that some financial institutions in the country will be affected negatively if the bill doesn’t meet its passing deadline.

If the bill is not passed by the deadline, financial firms will not be able to transact businesses internationally.

The bill aims at repealing the Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorist Financing Act currently being used to prosecute cashgate cases in court which is weak as it only attracts maximum 10 years imprisonment.

This legal framework seeks to create an independent Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) replacing the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).

The bill also introduces enhanced penalties for offences including money laundering, terrorism financing and financing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with a penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of MK500 million, and revocation of business licence for a legal person.

In December 2016, Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe tabled the bill in Parliament but members referred it to the house’s committees on legal affairs and Budget and Finance for further scrutiny before it is passed into law.

The committees which have already started consultation with officials from FIU, Malawi Law Commission and Bankers Association of Malawi will also meet Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) and Economics Association of Malawi (Ecama) before the August house reconvenes next week.