The FIU Mauritius attended the Eastern and Southern Africa Anti-Money Laundering Group’s (ESAAMLG) 46th Task Force of Senior Officials, as well as, the ESAAMLG’s 6th Public/Private Sector Dialogue in Kasane, Botswana from 01 – 07 September 2023. Cooperating and Supporting Nations and Organisations such as the UNODC, IMF, EU Global Facility, FATF and COMESA also attended the meeting.
The focus of the ESAAMLG meetings being on the work carried out by FIUs, the FIU Mauritius has, in this context, contributed to the various forums and meetings that formed part of the plenary. This included the ESAAMLG Head of FIU meeting and FIU forum, Head of Analysis meeting and the Risk, Trends and Methods group amongst others.
FIU Mauritius, represented by the Director of the FIU and one officer from the Financial Investigative and Analysis Division, also co-chaired the meeting for the Ad-hoc Contact Group for Burundi along with FIU Rwanda. To recall that FIU Mauritius has in 2022 assisted Burundi in its benchmarking exercise and provided recommendations for the creation of an appropriate AML/CFT system for its jurisdiction. FIU Mauritius is very pleased that it has been part of Burundi’s process in accessing ESAAMLG and congratulates the country for the progress made and its successful application to ESAAMLG as a full member.
As part of its ongoing implementations, FIU Mauritius provided an update to the FIU Forum and the Risk, Trend and Methods Group on how Mauritius is implementing the FATF 2020 report on Money Laundering and the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT). The presentation was well received by other counterparts and guidance was even sought with regards to the implementation. Training and assistance provided by FIU Mauritius to other FIU counterparts were also acknowledged in the Forums and in this respect, FIU Mauritius, endeavoured to continue assisting its counterparts wherever possible.
The 46th Task Force of Senior Officials meeting which hosted over 500 delegates from the ESAAMLG Member Countries also approved the Mutual Evaluation report of Lesotho and the progress made under the 2nd round of mutual evaluations for countries such as Rwanda, Eritrea. Enhanced Follow-up Reports (FURs) with requests for re-rating of Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia were approved as well as the normal Enhanced FURs of Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The Task Force commended Mauritius for the progress made on enhancing its effectiveness in the implementation of its AML/CFT/CPF.
