Place: Da Afghanistan Bank
Date: 26th February,2019
FinTRACA coordinated the first meeting of the High-Level Coordination Commission (HLCC) on 26th of February 2019. The establishment of the HLCC is in line with the FATF recommendation and is purposed to establish an effective inter-governmental agency coordination mechanism between 10-member ministries and government agencies to enhance collective efforts of the Afghan government to combat terrorist financing, money laundering and other predicate offences and increase effective outcomes of AML/CFT regime in the country.
The first meeting of HLCC was held in Supreme Council Hall of Da Afghanistan Bank and chaired by the governor of Da Afghanistan Bank His Excellency Mr. Khalil Sediq, and attended by deputy ministers and high ranking representatives of the member agencies.
Delivering the opening speech of the meeting, the HLCC chairman welcomed the member and reflected on the structure and importance of HLCC. He emphasized on the risks affiliated with Afghanistan in relation to money laundering and terrorist financing and illustrated on the establishment of HLCC as a major step forward towards mitigation of these risks.
As per the agenda of the meeting, a briefing on the progress and prospects of the National Risk Assessment (NRA) was presented by Mr. Nesar Yosufzai, Director General of FinTRACA. One of the main responsibilities of the HLCC include high level coordination of the National Risk Assessment. Members of the commissions displayed contentment over the progress of the NRA thus far, and emphasized on timely completion of the project.
Following briefing on the NRA, member took part in a general discussion on the contents and quality of the proposed procedure for HLCC. The HLCC procedure was subjected to detailed analysis by members, and all line ministries incorporated their observations in the procedure.
Members of the HLCC presented their observations of the HLCC framework and proposed their respective recommendation to further the effectiveness of the HLCC framework. Most of these recommendations were approved by HLCC and instructions were given to FinTRACA to present the final draft of the HLCC procedure for approval in the next meeting of the commission.
