During last November 2007, in Mexico, The Intosai Congress took an agreement on modification about the status and extension of the Task Force changed for the Working Group “Fight against International Money Laundering & Corruption”.

However, during the Second meeting held in Cairo last July 30-31, 2008 , the members agreed to modify the title of the working group to be:" Fight against Corruption and Money Laundering".
In attention of the meeting in Lesotho, last April 2007, that was determined that according to the Work Plan approved by the INCOSAI in Budapest in 2004; there were pending tasks, primarily associated to Objective 3:

· The formalization of international cooperation agreements and commitments with the existing Multilateral Organizations in the matter of anti-money laundering, require a maturity phase, because they have a long and slow process, thus this aspect would have to compromise the Task Force’s permanent work in order to enter and stay in the international community as Work Group;

· The lack of a definition of a set of general guidelines or principles of good practice that SAIs can follow to guide their participation in anti-money laundering audit, requires that the Task Force counts on members experienced in audit and anti-money laundering to develop this activity. Nevertheless, the implementation of these activities requires counting on the following factors: time and experts; to organize work sub groups with specialists or expert in the anti-money laundering, which could be taken within a Work Group with greater faculties and integrated with other SAIs with knowledge and experience in the subject, to develop and implement guidelines, policies, strategies and directives. The proposal to continue the Task Force’s work, at least one more year, to conclude the activities of the work plan; should consider the formalization of agreements and commitments with international organizations linked with this fight, demands time, security and continuity to achieve the desired objectives. Given the ample extent of its objectives, as well as the constant coordination and permanent implementation, the Task force’s technical work needs to be strengthened and reinforced, recommending the INTOSAI to carry out the following actions: a) To change or modify the current status of the Task Force “Fight Against International Money Laundering” to another situation in the International Organization (Work Group), that given its technical importance, requires to widen its faculties to use diverse tools which enable it to work with he best SAI's profiles to develop and lead audit guidelines; b) Extension of the FAIML Task Force’s scope, to the issue of fight against corruption, taking into account that, to freely dispose of the proceeds of corruption (whether it is a public official or not) the corrupt need to have the appearance of legitimate, resorting to money and assets laundering, as a common mechanism through which they protect and legalize the property and proceeds of corruption among others. Therefore, money laundering becomes the final stage in the corruption process, by transforming the unlawfully obtained proceeds to lawful, and at the same time, becoming itself into a sophisticated act of corruption. Consequently, due to its close interconnection, it’s consistent that this Task Force study both issues, in a jointly and integral manner, to put forward policies, strategies and actions, enabling SAIs to act against this scourge, as well as, training them with the proper technical tools, to track and recover state assets illicitly diverted. SAIs will detect corruption and seek reversion of affected state’s assets, thereby, achieving the efficiency and effectiveness principles which guide governmental control.

Background

Working Group on Fight Against Corruption and Money Laundering

WGFACML