MOCA and FID ink MoU on fighting financial crimes
Published:Wednesday | November 17, 2021 | 4:55 PM
The Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) and the Financial Investigations Division (FID) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at strengthening their response to, among other things, money laundering, organised crime, fraud and financial crime.
The MoU was signed by MOCA's Director General Colonel Desmond Edwards and the FID's Chief Technical Director Selvin Hay during an event staged at MOCA's Oxford Road office in St Andrew.
The agreement will enhance the effective working relationship between FID and MOCA and deepen the areas of collaboration between the organisations.
These include, but are not limited to, information/intelligence sharing, casework assistance, referrals (including criminal referrals), and joint operations and investigations.
“The mandates, responsibilities and functions of the FID and MOCA are complementary – tackling public sector corruption, removing the profit from crime and disrupting organised criminal networks. MOCA is the FID's closest partner; both organisations have always enjoyed an excellent working relationship and this MoU solidifies that,” said Hay in a statement today.
“We anticipate that under this MoU there will be increased use of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) by our MOCA counterparts. It is a powerful piece of legislation which should be readily used by all law enforcement agencies. When applied more robustly, we can expect to bring more criminal organisations and individuals to justice,” he added.
For his part, Edwards noted that the MOU will formalise a longstanding relationship between MOCA and the FID.
“It will allow for greater synchronisation of our efforts while further strengthening our existing relationships. The MOU will also create better utilisation of the finite resources available to both agencies and give greater leveraging of information and intelligence relating to significant financial investigations.”
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