PAPUA New Guinea needs two more years of hard work to get off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, according to Treasury Minister Ian Ling-Stuckey.
It still has 18 of the 75 recommendations from a year ago left to complete. This was confirmed after the National Coordination Committee (NCC) met recently to review the progress.
Of the 18 recommended actions on PNG’s roadmap, five must be completed by the end of September this year.
They include completing the national risk assessment, legal person risk assessment, and amending the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, the Criminal Code Act, and the United Nations Sanctions Act – all 2015 laws.
Ling-Stuckey said the two risk assessments had been discussed during a technical workshop in Mt Hagen this week.
Drafting of the three amendment Bills is well advanced, and a roadmap has been set for spending an extra K13.5 million allocated in the 2026 Budget.
The NCC includes heads of 23 agencies from the law and justice and financial sectors.
It is chaired by the Treasurer, with the secretary for Justice and the Bank of PNG governor as co-chairs.
Ling-Stuckey said only 19 of the 23 agencies sent representatives to the meeting, and just 10 at agency head level.
“This is not acceptable as is a major contributing factor why PNG is where it is,” he said.
The meeting also reviewed a recent visit by the FATF high level group, which met the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Speaker, Police Commissioner, and Secretary for Justice and the NCC.
“The main challenge facing PNG will be to provide the statistical evidence of a significant increase in prosecuted cases of money laundering, and evidence on the collection of funds from the proceeds of crime,” Ling-Stuckey said.
He said the National Executive Council would get an update next week, with the three Bills expected to go before Parliament in the August sitting.
