Financial Times

The Asia Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering at a meeting earlier this month in the Philippines was told that Sri Lanka should be alerted to the possibility of terrorist financing through NGOs and pointed out the lack of a system to monitor NGOs here.

The meeting, in which Sri Lanka took part, was informed of the overall vulnerabilities of the non-profit sector to terrorist financing or other abuses and the insufficient monitoring of non governmental Organisations (NGO’s) to ensure that funds are used to achieve charitable objectives and to ensure the financial transparency of NGOs.

However Sri Lankan representatives said Sri Lanka is conducting a comprehensive review of its NGO legislative framework and that several measures are being taken to ensure that NGO funds are not used for terrorist financing and other abuses. A team from APG which visited Colombo to study measures against money laundering lauded Sri Lanka’s efforts to comply with international anti-money laundering standards. Sri Lanka was cited as an example of a Member State, which, despite substantial difficulties posed by the prevailing domestic situation, was making every effort to comply with its international obligations to counter money laundering and terrorist financing.

George Neville Fernando, Chief Executive of the recently established Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Sri Lanka outlined the measures taken by Sri Lanka in setting in place the legislative and institutional framework to combat money laundering and terrorist financing in Sri Lanka. He explained the progressive achievement of milestones by Sri Lanka, through the adoption of anti-money laundering legislation, the establishment of the FIU and the proposed measures for the full operationalization of the Unit.