Does the Barbados Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) Really Exist?

The is the first of the three Barbadian stories I promised.

Finding AMLA

An internet search for the Barbados Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) led me to this website: http://www.barbadosfiu.gov.bb/

Where I found this:

The Money Laundering (Prevention and Control) Act, 1998-38, which establishes the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, ascribes to that body the responsibility of supervising financial institutions, making it the principal supervisory entity in the fight against money laundering in Barbados. The legislation requires the Authority to receive reports of suspicious or unusual transactions from financial institutions. Such reports are then analysed and directed in accordance with the findings of the financial analysts. The executive functions of the Authority are carried out by the Financial Intelligence Unit.  This unit is headed by a Director and is responsible for the day to day work of the Authority.  Thus, all reports of suspicious activity are sent to the FIU from where they are managed.

This contact page, http://www.barbadosfiu.gov.bb/contact.asp gives information on reaching the director of AMLA. It lists a post office box, two telephone numbers, and this email, amla@sunbeach.net!

I could not find on any of the pages a single name of any of the nine AMLA members! Consequently, Keltruth Corp. sent an email requesting the names and email addresses of the nine AMLA committe members to this AMLA Sunbeach address. No reply yet!

I was concerned about the confidentiality aspect of sending an email to a Sunbeach address. It appears from the Sunbeach.net “Directors” page that most of the directors of Sunbeach are involved in international business!

I sent the email to amla@sunbeach.net, but I received a reply from the Acting Director of the FIU stating she was not at liberty to give me the emails of the AMLA committe members, and declining without comment to give me their names. Now both the Barbados Government and the US Department of State list the FIU as an independent agency under the portfolio of the Attorney General. I have requested clarification in a follow-up email sent to both addresses.

Faith Shaken

If you are very observant, you will have noticed that:

• the AMLA website is barbadosfiu.gov.bb, where “fiu” stands for Financial Intelligence Unit

• the AMLA email address is amla@sunbeach.net – not an official Barbados Government email address

• an email sent to the above address solicted a response from the head of the FIU. The response was from an address that ended with “@barbadosfiu.gov.bb”. The two phone numbers on this email were identical to those given to contact the Director of AMLA.

The US Department of State, INSCR 2008 Vol II – Barbados states: “Established in 2000, the FIU is an independent agency housed in the office of the Attorney General.”

Could it possibly be that AMLA does not exist as a separate entity from FIU? The AMLA members’ names are not published on the website, which is FIU’s, the phone numbers are FIU’s, the email is hosted by private enterprise, and the address is a Post Office box!

Organizational Chart

Here is the best I could do – an organizational chart from page 40 of the Barbados Government National Anti-Drug Plan 2002 – 2007.

Click on image to see entire chart.

While we are concentrating on the “Anti-Money Laundering” (AML) branch, but to make a point lets take a quick look at the names under “Research and Diagnosis”. All have official websites bearing the short version of their names:

• NCSA is the National Council on Substance Abuse,  http://ncsa.org.bb

• UWI is the University of the West Indies,  http://www.uwi.edu/

• CAREC is the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre,  http://www.carec.org/

Anti-Money Laundering appears to fall under the portfolio of the Attorney General, who incidentally wrote the Foreword on page III of the plan. In the AML branch, AMLA paradoxically has the http://www.barbadosfiu.gov.bb/ website. This page says “Welcome to the AMLA Website”, but is titled “Financial Intelligence Unit”. The contact page also refers to AMLA.

Even the RBPF, the Royal Barbados Police Force, has its own web site. What happened to AMLA?

Did BLP Politician Turned Chief Justice Sir David Simmons Contribute to the Design of AMLA?

The FIU/AMLA website states:

Although operational since August 2000 the Anti-Money Laundering Authority and the Financial Intelligence Unit were formally launched on Monday 13th August 2001 at a ceremony. The feature address was delivered by the Honourable David Simmons the then Attorney General of Barbados.

I can find little evidence to suggest that AMLA is “fully operational” or even that it exists. AMLA is supposed to meet every month. I would have thought they would have a regular stream of bulletins for the public. To the contrary the AMLA/FIU “Info Desk” page is blank except for the title banner! The “Recommendations” page has a list of hyperlinks – the first three were broken, so I stopped checking. I suspect that this website was written some time ago and that it receives little maintenance.

David Simmons was the Attorney General of Barbados from September 1994 to August 27, 2001. The Barbados AMLA would have been set up during his tenure. The now Sir David Simmons does not appear to favour a rigid separation of the different branches of Government as he accepted the position of Chief Justice on January 1, 2002.

Sir David was succeeded by Mia Amor Mottley, who had many years to change the set up. In January 2008 Prime Minister David Thompson (biography) appointed Freundel J. Stuart to the post of Attorney General. It does not augur well for further disclosure that Mr. Stuart’s biography page is blank.

Who Funds the Barbados AMLA?

Is it the Government of Barbados? If it is, then there should be some accountability to the Barbadian taxpayers. Is it the US? If so, they should be accountable to the US taxpayers.

How does the public check to see that this money is being spent productively?

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To be continued at a later date …

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