There are no financial projections for a new Financial Crime Bureau's annual running costs, as Home Affairs begins an extensive phase of recruitment for 50 specialist staff.
The President of the Committee for Home Affairs, Deputy Rob Prow, was questioned about the creation of the Bureau, alongside its new Director, Kevin Davis, during a Scrutiny Hearing on Monday.
Scrutiny heard how the Bureau was created as part of Home Affairs' preparations for an upcoming assessment by Moneyval in 2023.
The international body was established in 1997 and assesses a jurisdiction’s compliance with standards combatting financial crime.
“We are investing now, the strategy is, when we are inspected, Guernsey will be seen to be working pro-actively,” said Mr Davis.
Pictured: The Director of the EFCB will work in collaboration with Bailiwick Law Enforcement following his appointment earlier this year.
Vice-President of the Scrutiny Management Committee, Deputy Simon Fairclough, tried to tease out the exact costs accrued.
He was unsuccessful in finding out the future running costs of the Bureau, but received clarity over the reallocation of funds to set it up.
“£1 million has been allocated to Law Enforcement [in combatting financial crime] and £350,000 for the Law Officers of the Court,” said Deputy Prow.
“We have combined that money and structure to set up the Bureau.”
Pictured: “I have every confidence in Law Enforcement and the Bureau in recruiting the talent we need – Moneyval will find us to be compliant,” said Deputy Prow.
Mr Davis said he needs 50 staff in the Bureau and that many of them will be specialists in financial crime.
“We have an eclectic mix of staff, including forensic bank specialists,” he said. “The Bureau will focus on money laundering and we need specialist staff, but they don’t come cheap.”
Despite this, Mr Davis hopes to hire as many people ‘on-island’ as possible.
Additional funds have already been requested to fund various proposals Mr Davis has, to make sure Guernsey is compliant with international standards, as he conceded Guernsey had to prove its competence in dealing with international money laundering.
“Funding has already been ring-fenced to provide a response and I have asked for additional monies to implement various ideas,” said Mr Davis.
Pictured: SOG are currently hiring for positions within the Bureau.
When explaining why the Bureau was created, Deputy Prow said they had taken numerous factors into account when preparing for the future assessment and chosen it to be the best course of action.
“We’ve looked at the evidence, an IMF evaluation in 2010, the 2013 Moneyval evaluation; we took operational advice, and we looked at other jurisdictions,” he said.
“We have developed and launched a framework and set-up a standalone Bureau which will work with local law enforcement.”
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