Guinea Bissau

Guinea-Bissau is among the world’s least developed countries, depending mainly on agriculture and fishing. The civil war that took place from June 1998 to early 1999 unfortunately caused very severe damage to the country’s infrastructure, widely disrupted economic activity and left the country in a state of serious disarray.

The banking and other financial institutions sector in Guinea-Bissau is quite limited and is therefore not considered to be a major source of ML/FT. There are four banks, which are linked to overseas institutions, and nine bureaux de change, which operate normally. Some black market money exchange takes place, but the difference in exchange rate is minimal and there is a danger of being given counterfeit notes, since there has recently been an increase in the presence of counterfeit notes on the local market, both in CFA and foreign currencies. Additionally, there are four transfer bureaux and three insurance companies operating formally in the country. The country’s four banks regularly report to, and are monitored by, the BCEAO. In general, the sector seems well regulated; the uniform UEMOA law is applicable and FATF practices and recommendations apply (KYC, circulars, reporting, transaction ceilings and record-keeping).

Most money laundering is undertaken in the informal sector through the illicit export of funds by private individuals, essentially drug traffickers and their accomplices. As is the case in neighbouring countries, some operators also transact by using “equivalent deposits” of currency with foreign operators, with the inevitable complicity of local authorities. As for the latter, they tend to invest their ill-gotten gains inside the country, for the most part in real estate or luxury items. The problem has been and remains the impunity with which such persons operate, given the tremendous inadequacy of mechanisms to control and prosecute offenders.

Guinea-Bissau is the Portuguese-speaking member of the UEMOA, by virtue of its Law of 1994 authorizing ratification of the Treaty signed on January 10, 1994. This Treaty in turn governs all monetary and financial issues among its members.

Money laundering has been fully criminalized in Guinea-Bissau since July 2004, in accordance with the uniform UEMOA law, which was ratified by the National Assembly (Parliament) and formally promulgated on July 1, 2004 as Resolution No. 4 AL/2004, approving the UEMOA Law “pertaining to the Fight against Money Laundering.” This crime is further governed by Community Regulations No. 7/2002/CM/UEMOA, which regulates the fight against ML in member States, No. 14/2002/CM/UEMOA, which regulates the freezing and seizure of assets, and No. R09/98/CM/UEMOA, which regulates external financial relations among member States, in addition to Instruction No. 06/99/RC of February 1, 1999 relating to manual exchange operators.

Despite what may now seem to be a fairly comprehensive legal firewall against ML, many actors are still poorly informed of the contents of these laws and of their impact on everyday life. There remains a need for widespread and systematic sensitization and awareness-raising throughout the country. The NGOs Consultative Platform is the central NGO currently coordinating civil society actions in the country and could play an important role in this direction. A national AML/CFT workshop was held in September 2007 with the support of GIABA, during which the AML law as well as implementation procedures were discussed. However, no amount of sensitization or education can replace sanctions for criminal or unethical conduct.

The primary authority for dealing with AML/CFT issues is exercised by the Ministry of Finance (MF). The Ministry of the Interior and Security (Police) and the MinJus (Judicial Police) also play a significant role in the fight against ML and FT.The Governmental Decree creating the CENTIF (Célula Nacional de Tratamento das Informaçoes Financeiras), and which is foreseen in the AML law, was issued on May 29, 2006. Its members have now all been appointed (August 2, 2007) and are ready to engage without delay in its physical establishment and proper functioning. This CENTIF is destined to be the principal repository and source of financial intelligence in Guinea-Bissau, empowered to receive requisite information and to generate intelligence in order to pursue prosecution of economic and financial crimes. Presently, the newly designated CENTIF Director is also GIABA’s national correspondent. With regard to the financing of terrorism at this time, there is no stand-alone legislation dealing with the issue, which has not been considered a priority until now.

Guinea-Bissau is signatory to several International Conventions relating to ML and FT. It also recognizes Security Council Resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1373 (2001) on ML, in addition to officially adhering to the FATF 40+9 Recommendations.

The country remains traumatized by the violence of the civil war in 1998–99 and by the ongoing political instability, despite official respect for the electoral process. Both have poisoned national life, and money laundering has understandably not been at the forefront of people’s concerns. However, given the situation concerning drug trafficking in the country, and with the imminent presidential elections in 2008, the time is now ripe for addressing the long overdue issue of dirty money, and how it benefits a few individuals and harms the lives of everyone else. It is thus essential that concrete measures be implemented soon, with firm external support, in order to provide AML/CFT capacity to the state, particularly to the law enforcement bodies and the CENTIF, in order to promote rule of law.

At present there is virtually no ability to receive suspicious transaction reports and to follow–up on them. The ability to exchange information and share intelligence with other law enforcement bodies, both inside and outside the country is also extremely limited. The prosecutorial capacity of the anti-drug squad is terribly limited, as is the ability of the courts to deal with complex financial and economic crimes. The entire structure is weak and needs urgent attention in order to start actively fighting the corrupt practitioners operating in the country; this would be as a complement and direct response to the new Prime Minister’s official declaration that he intends to sanitize public finances and fight the traffickers.

The DNFI sector is presently totally unregulated and seems impossible to control at this juncture.Before regulation can effectively happen, there is a need to set up the requisite systems to regulate the financial institutions and to combat the most flagrant infractions of the law. It will also require a definite commitment on the part of the Government. Establishing the full chain of detection, analysis, investigation, accusation, and prosecution must come first in order to restore a sense of integrity and accountability within the country.

Guinea-Bissau thus continues to be extremely vulnerable both to ML and to FT, since it is insufficiently prepared or unable to combat this daily reality effectively and decisively.