GAC, QFIU join hands to fight money laundering, terror funding

The General Authority of Customs (GAC) signed Wednesday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar Financial Information Unit (QFIU) on electronic linkage to strengthen the fight against money laundering and terrorism funding. The MoU was signed with the aim of achieving the mutual goal of both entities on the matter and contribute to supporting the national economy through combating illegal financial practices.The MoU was signed by the Chairman of GAC Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Jamal and QIFU head HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Eid al-Thani. The MoU includes creating an electronic linkage between both parties and exchange of information that may help in monitoring financial transactions suspected of money laundering or associated crimes or terrorism financing. This could take place either automatically or at the request of one or the other.Both parties will participate in creating and implementing training courses that aim to improve the level of the human resources in each entity. Both parties will also co-ordinate the organisation of training programmes with the National Committee for Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing to avoid effort duplication and to achieve the desired benefit.HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Eid al-Thani said signing the MoU with GAC comes as part of completing the role carried out by both parties to support the national economy, to protect it from suspicious finance

ial transactions and to find out all the mechanisms that help to protect and improve it. He added that this co-operation promotes the efforts of the QFIU and its continuous pursuit to strengthen knowledge and spread awareness on ways to combat crimes related to money laundering. He said the MoU is also an extension to the efforts made by the unit in taking the necessary measures to combat any suspicions in financial transactions made in general, in co-ordination with the related authorities.For his part, chairman of GAC said signing the MoU promotes the importance of exchanging information between both parties in the process of investigation and collecting clues. Both parties signed the MoU as they are aware of the complementary roles to improve investigation results in suspecting money laundering and terrorist financing activities for the investigation phase of the public prosecution, he said. Al-Jamal said the MoU includes exchanging available information between both parties on crime statistics discovered in Qatar, emerging or widespread criminal phenomena in the Middle East and North Africa region and the world and all that is related to financial crimes. The exercise in aim to aid one another in setting the priorities which achieves the desired efficiency to protect the society and the national economy from the crimes' negative effects, he added.