Bookmark and Share

$90m in suspicious transactions from religious bodies

IN PARLIAMENT

■ Ria Taitt

ria.taitt@trinidadexpress.com

BETWEEN 2012 and 2018, foreign jurisdictions flagged as 'suspicious transactions' $90 million 'coming out of religious organisations in Trinidad and Tobago'.

So said Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi as he piloted the Registration of Non-Profit Organisations Bill in the House of Representatives yesterday.

The AG said, based on information coming from the FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) in 2012, there was suspicious activity of $11.3 million which came from a religious organisation; in 2013 and 2014, there was none; but in 2015, $74.2 million coming from a religious organisation was deemed to be suspicious.

In 2016, US$13,000 was flagged, while in 2017, TT$1.3 million was flagged, and in 2018, TT$72,000.

In the period following (2018), approximately $2.7 million was flagged as suspicious.

The Attorney General said the FIU statistics reveal that 'right now' there are five reports for terrorist financing and three reports for money laundering.

He said the Islamic community has stated that it believes it may be prejudiced by the manner in which zakat (annual obligatory payment under Islamic law) is treated when it sends money overseas.

'That was a real situation,' Al-Rawi said, adding that countries around the world treat charitable organisations differently.

'The Government felt it necessary to protect charitable purposes and to treat with the risks of terrorist financing and tackle the issue by coming up with a legislative structure for registration and regulation,' he said.

'We have a serious issue in this country- tithes, zakat, alms, offerings... In all of these things people give money and they don't ask a question- where it is going. So we want to give the people who manage and who give money protection of law to know that it is all bona fide and that there is a mechanism, particularly where there is public money involved in the equation,' he stated.

The Attorney General said this NGO Bill, along with the Companies Amendment Bill, which was debated in the Senate last week, and the Civil Asset Forfeiture 'Explain your wealth' legislation, which is to come to the House next week, are the last 'pieces of the puzzle' to be put into place as the Government faces the review by the Joint Group of Assessors from FATF which is due April 23-25.

He said there were NGOs which were included in the entities for the distribution of charity and these were found in the religious realm and political realm. He said in one year, $205 million was given to non-profit entities by the Government.

He said there were 8,983 NGOs registered in the country, while 303 were created by acts of Parliament. He said 135 NGOs received government subventions.

Bookmark and Share