On Monday June 13, 2016, the Executive Director of the CFATF signed the Grant Contract for the European Union Project thereby effectively commencing the execution period of the Training and accreditation programme. The ‘implementation period’ however, once the initial pre-financing payment is received during the month of July, 2016, as anticipated, begins on August 1, 2016 and ends on July 31, 2019.

As project startup is imminent, last Friday, July 1, 2016, The Project Team was activated at the Secretariat comprising the Executive Director/ Deputy Executive Director, the Financial Comptroller, the Law Enforcement Advisor, the IT Officer and the Administrative Assistant (to be hired). The Project Team will in effect be the implementing unit of the Project and therefore responsible for the day-to-day execution of related project tasks

This project, which is fully sponsored by the European Union, is an avant-garde approach towards building capacity and slowing the attrition rate of our trained FIU and financial investigations professionals and is the first of its kind anywhere, so whilst we do anticipate some challenges, we can take heart in the words of Hunter S. Thompson who is quoted as having said that, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing right”. We look forward to working with everyone as the Secretariat embarks on the execution of this major regional initiative.

Please monitor this space for further details.