The designers of this bureaucratic arrangement conveniently forgot that SANS has no authority to compel commercial banks to provide information, a key component of an anti-money laundering strategy based on large cash transaction reports and suspicious transaction reports.
As a result, anti-money laundering efforts in Bulgaria were completely useless for approximately one and a half years. Given Bulgaria’s reputation for institutionalised corruption and the linkages between organised crime and both former and current state security agencies, this is not a good thing.
If the FATF ever glances away from its obsession with Iran and weapons proliferation, perhaps they might decide to reach into the past, dust off the “Non-Compliant Countries and Territories” (NCCT) list and write the name “Bulgaria” at the top in permanent ink?
When will the FATF rescind the business of political opportunism and get back to the basic business of anti-money laundering?
“I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
- Will Rogers (1879 - 1935), quoted in Saturday Review, Aug. 25, 1962
This Article of Interest appears with many others in the ManchesterCF blog – http://manchestercf.blogspot.com
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http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2009-09-09&article=28661
Money Laundering in Bulgaria Unobserved for 1.5 Years
"As Bulgaria's agency for financial intelligence passed under the cap of the State Agency for National Security
(SANS) and the latter has no right to require information from commercial banks, nobody has watched for instances of money laundering in the poorest EU country for a year and a half," Bulgaria's finance minister Simeon Djankov said.
"We shall reestablish an anti-fraud agency with the finance ministry, which will be authorized to require information from the commercial banks," he added.
A new department with the finance ministry, headed by deputy finance minister Ana Mihaylova, will be monitoring the economic condition of Bulgaria and the foreign investors' attitudes towards Bulgaria.
"In August, analysts reported budgetary deficit of 105 m levs, which is five times less than it was in July," deputy finance minister Vladislav Goranov said. The fiscal reserve was 7.7 b levs end-August.
The funds in the fiscal reserve will be used to compensate the deficit in the social security payments from the state budget. At the end of last month, finance experts reported revenues to the budget of 16.7 b levs, or fifty-one percent of the planned collections for the year) and the expenditures were 17.1 b levs, or 56.3% of the preliminarily planned. At end-August, the total budget deficit was 490 m levs.
"If the tendency for budgetary stability continues over the next few months accompanied by measures to cut down expenditures and collection of the dividends from the state-run companies, we may succeed in saving this year's budget," Mr. Goranov said.
Katerina Ivanova
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