Regular Meeting of the Standing Interagency AML/CFT/CPF Commission

On August 3, 2018, the regular meeting of the standing Interagency Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Terrorist Financing and Counter-Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) Commission (the Commission), chaired by Mr. Mahamdali Vatanzoda, Assistant to the President of the Republic Tajikistan on Legal Affairs, was held at the National Bank of Tajikistan.

The Republic of Tajikistan currently undergoes the assessment by the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) under the second round of mutual evaluations of AML/CFT/CPF systems. On May 5 -15, 2018, the assessment team visited Tajikistan, and the draft Mutual Evaluation Report is now being finalized at the post-onsite stages of the process.

In this context, the Commission discussed the issues pertaining to submission by the Republic of Tajikistan of its comments on the second draft Mutual Evaluation Report to the EAG Secretariat.

The meeting started with the welcome remarks delivered Mr. Vatanzoda. After that, the representatives of the Ministries and Agencies (the Commission members) and the Financial Monitoring Department under the National Bank of Tajikistan made presentations on issues included in the meeting agenda.

In particular, the Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Tajikistan Mr. Sirojiddin Ikromi presented information on the results of review of the second draft Mutual Evaluation Report by the Tajik competent ministries and agencies.

After that, the representative of the Financial Monitoring Department informed the meeting participants about the current situation and next steps to be taken for submitting the comments on the second draft Mutual Evaluation Report to the EAG Secretariat. The Commission members also presented their comments on the deficiencies identified in the draft Report for submission to the EAG Secretariat.

Besides that, the Commission discussed the members of the Tajik delegation who will take part in the face-to-face meeting scheduled for September 5 – 7, 2018 in Moscow, Russian Federation.

In course of discussion of the issues included in the agenda, a number of relevant decisions were passed, including appointment of a new head of the Working Group for preparing and conducting the National ML/TF Risk Assessment.

The meeting also discussed changes in the structure of the Interagency Commission in the context of extension of the Commission mandate to the CPF issues and establishment of new government agencies responsible, inter alia, for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It is noteworthy that in his presentation Mr. Ikromi expressed concerns about untimely provision of the requested information to the assessors, and also emphasized the need for avoiding frequent turnover of the officials and executive officers responsible for AML/CFT/CPF.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Vatanzoda noted that the mutual assistance of the Republic of Tajikistan is conducted as per the requirements set out in the 2012 FATF Recommendations, and requires a particular focus of the assessed country and of all individual ministries and agencies.

Financial Monitoring Department, National Bank of Tajikistan