Wade Smith, former Commissioner of Customs and 5th District Progressive Virgin Islands Movement candidate has been confirmed as the Acting Director of the Financial Investigation Agency (FIA).
Mr. Errol George longstanding Director of the agency is presently away on study leave.
Smith’s role as the Acting Director of Financial Investigation Agency was confirmed during the recently held Standing Finance Committee meeting, which took place between November 20th and 29th, 2019 at the Office of the House of Assembly in Road Town, Tortola.
Additionally; like many other statutory organizations across the territory, the FIA may be contending with limited resources to carry out its 2020 mandate.
Based on information received during the Standing Finance Committee report, the Financial Investigation Agency will seek to have certain offences in its Act and other related laws that cover matters that fall in the responsibility of the agency.
The report detailed and I quote: “There is an option to impose an administrative penalty as oppose to penalties being purely criminal. As it stands because the penalties for the offences of the FIU are criminal, all matters have to be referred to the office of the Director of Public Prosecution.”
With the aim of improving money laundering enforcement, the unit also plans to do more parallel investigations with other law enforcement agencies such as RVIPF and HM Customs, as the FIA possess the technical expertise in money laundering and terrorist financing.”
It said the Criminal Conduct Act of 1997 also gives the Director and Investigation the powers to that of police officers.
The report also uncovered a 57% increase in Suspicious Activity Reports. However, the agency was only able to analyze less than 4% of the SAR’s because of limited resources. The report further outlined that:
“The funds are limited and therefore the agency is left to rely on other agencies for support with specialized training within RVIPF and HM Customs rather than other costly secondments to the agency.”
The FIA entreated a $2.4M budget, noting that it is needed in order to make sure that it runs at its full capacity and to make sure that the exercise is completed at a national standard; however, was only granted $1.6m amidst concerns that the amount does not allow the agency to meet its mandate and annual expenditures.
After concerns were raised by opposition members Hon. Julian Fraser RA and Hon. Mark Vanterpool on the limited budget, Premier and Minister of Finance, Hon Andrew A. Fahie promised to do his best to make sure the agency’s request was revisited.
The opposition members stated that for such an important agency the monies should be allocated.