|
|
Sanctions:
The European Union adopted certain restrictive measures
concerning an arms embargo and members of the National
Council for Democracy and Development (NCDD) and persons
associated with them.
For further information, please visit the following link: -
http://ec.europa.
eu/external_relations/cfsp/sanctions/docs/measures_en.pdf
____________________________________________________
Offshore Jurisdiction Blacklists:
Information unavailable.
____________________________________________________
US State Department Money Laundering Report - 2011:
Guinea is not a regional financial center. In the past three years,
Guinea has undergone profound political change, which has seen
it go from a country heavily focused on narcotics control and anti-
money laundering, to a country where these issues take a back
seat to more pertinent issues such as democratization and
macroeconomic reform. Guinea’s economy is weak and largely
cash-dependant and its fragile banking sector is an unlikely
conduit for large-scale money laundering activities. However, due
to its history of political instability, high corruption, and neighbors
such as Guinea-Bissau, Guinea has been an historical hub of
drug trafficking. The scale of trafficking and level of funding that
trafficking funnels into other spheres, such as international
terrorism, is unknown. Reliable figures and estimates are
unavailable, as Guinea’s security forces are ill-equipped and
disorganized, relying upon international institutions to carry out
large-scale investigations into trafficking activities.
Because of the weak banking institutions and reliance on hard-
currency, the Guinean black market is a thriving and vital part of
the economy. Contraband is common, with estimates that up to 70-
80% of all pharmaceutical goods sold in Guinean markets are
counterfeit. Foreign currency exchange is a popular activity in the
black market, as the official state sanctioned exchange rate for
the local Guinean Franc (GnF) to the US dollar or euro does not
come close to the actual exchange rate. Almost all major
commercial activities are completed in foreign currency. The
mining sector accounts for more than 70% of exports. Long-run
improvements in government fiscal arrangements, literacy, and
the legal framework are needed if the country is to move out of
poverty.
DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY
TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US
CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN
THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE
U.S.: NO
CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
“All serious crimes” approach or “list” approach to predicate
crimes: All serious crimes
Legal persons covered: criminally: YES civilly: YES
CRIMINALIZATION OF TERRORIST FINANCING:
Ability to freeze terrorist assets without delay: NO
UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities distributed to
financial institutions: YES
KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER RULES:
Covered entities: Public Treasury, Central Bank, financial
institutions, real estate and travel agencies, auditors, service
companies, cash couriers, casinos, NGOs, lawyers, accountants,
brokers, dealers, notaries
Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign: YES
Domestic: YES
SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:
Covered entities: Public Treasury, Central Bank, financial
Institutions, real estate and travel agencies, auditors, service
companies, cash couriers, casinos, NGOs, lawyers, accountants,
brokers, dealers, notaries
Number of STRs received and time frame: Not available
Number of CTRs received and time frame: Not available
MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL
PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:
Prosecutions: Not available
Convictions: Not available
Assets forfeited: criminally: Not available civilly: Not available
RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:
With U.S.: YES
With other governments/jurisdictions: YES
Guinea is a member of the Intergovernmental Action Group
against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorist in West
Africa (GIABA), a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style
regional body. Guinea has not yet undergone a mutual evaluation.
ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND
COMMENTS:
Effective enforcement of the existing laws continues to be the
largest issue in Guinea. During 2009, Guinea was run by a
military junta which frequently created charges of drug trafficking
to arrest, intimidate, and steal from political enemies and wealthy
citizens and businesses. In the few instances where individuals
did go to trial, the proceedings amounted to little more than a
show-trial, and final rulings were rarely announced.
In February 2010, the junta government was replaced by a
Transition Government, which governed Guinea until democratic
elections in June and November, 2010. The Transition
Government suffered from a severe lack of funds and an
overwhelming concentration on organizing presidential elections,
leaving money laundering and trafficking issues to become
relegated to non-priority topics.
Although there are institutions in place to investigate money
laundering and financial irregularities, they are severely limited in
authority and scope. For example, the financial intelligence unit,
headquartered in the Central Bank, is hampered by a lack of
resources, corruption, and political instability.
The Guinean security forces are also ill-equipped and under-
trained. For the last several years, they have been reliant upon
outside assistance and training in matters of money laundering
and prosecution. In cases where legal means do take their proper
course, the proceedings are usually derailed at the judicial level –
or within higher government ranks. Transparency International’s
2010 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Guinea as the 164 of
178 countries worldwide.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Narcotics Report 2012 (introduction):
Despite some genuine efforts by the GoG to combat the narcotics
trade, the issue remains a secondary priority. It remains to be
seen if newly elected President Alpha Conde will take efficacious
action in combating the narcotics trade during his term of office.
So far, Conde has focused more on other priorities. During the
past two decades, Guinea has experienced a series of dramatic
events that have tended to produce two distinctly separate and
diametrically opposed approaches towards narcotics issues-
either the Government of Guinea (GoG) focused attention on
narcotics with unprecedented and (ostensibly) earnest interest, or
the GoG relegated the issue to insignificance. The direction taken
by the GoG at any given point in time was generally dependent on
the prevailing political climate and the agenda of the president
holding power. In some cases, the intent of the government’s
focus on the narcotics issue seemed to be manipulative- i.e.; to
convince foreign observers that more effective action was being
taken than was actually the case. In other instances, the GoG
demonstrated the best of intentions to attempt to address
narcotics issues, but enforcement of drug laws was left to the
country’s under-resourced and inadequately trained police and
military, which did their best to carry out their responsibilities, but
were ultimately ineffective. Guinea is a party to the 1988 UN Drug
Convention.
For Full report, click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2011
(introduction):
(Tier 2 Watch List)
Guinea is a source, transit, and to a lesser extent, a destination
country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor
and sex trafficking. The majority of Guinea’s trafficking victims are
children, and incidents of trafficking are more prevalent among
Guinean citizens than foreign migrants residing in Guinea. Girls
are often subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual
exploitation, while boys are forced to beg on the streets or to work
as street vendors, shoe shiners, and laborers in gold and
diamond mines. Some Guinean men are subjected to forced
agricultural labor. Smaller numbers of girls from Mali, Sierra
Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and
Guinea-Bissau migrate to Guinea, where they are subjected to
domestic servitude and likely also commercial sexual exploitation.
Some Guinean boys and girls are subjected to forced labor in
gold mining in Senegal, Mali, and possibly other African countries.
Guinean women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and
forced and child prostitution in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin,
Senegal, Greece, and Spain. Chinese women are brought to
Guinea for commercial sexual exploitation by Chinese traffickers,
and women from Vietnam are reportedly forced into prostitution in
hotels and restaurants in Guinea. Networks also traffic women
from Nigeria, India, and Greece through Guinea to the Maghreb
and onward to Europe – notably Italy, Ukraine, Switzerland, and
France – for forced prostitution and domestic servitude.
The Government of Guinea does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is
making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting year,
virtually all of Guinea’s transition government’s attention and
funding were devoted to the first democratic election in the
country’s 52-year post-colonial history. Although the government
acknowledges that trafficking in persons is a problem in Guinea, it
is unclear if the new government, which took power in December
2010, will demonstrate an increase over the previous regime’s
minimal efforts to combat trafficking. The government failed to
investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses; no new
prosecutions or convictions were reported, 12 cases from the
previous reporting period remain pending in the courts, and 18
additional cases have disappeared from the court system. The
government created a specialized police unit responsible for child
labor and child trafficking investigations; however, a failure to
clearly define the relationship of this unit to the National
Committee to Fight Against Trafficking in Persons has led to
internal conflict over the government’s limited anti-trafficking
funds. The government failed to provide protection to trafficking
victims, and although the government conducted an anti-
trafficking awareness campaign on radio and television, overall
prevention efforts remained weak. Therefore, Guinea is placed on
Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year. Guinea was not
placed on Tier 3 per Section 107 of the 2008 Trafficking Victims
Protection Reauthorization Act, however, as the government has
a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking and is devoting
sufficient resources to implement that plan.
For full report click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Terrorism Report 2009
No report available
____________________________________________________
Links:
Worldwide AML Legislation (International Bar Association)
The European Union adopted certain restrictive measures
concerning an arms embargo and members of the National
Council for Democracy and Development (NCDD) and persons
associated with them.
For further information, please visit the following link: -
http://ec.europa.
eu/external_relations/cfsp/sanctions/docs/measures_en.pdf
____________________________________________________
Offshore Jurisdiction Blacklists:
Information unavailable.
____________________________________________________
US State Department Money Laundering Report - 2011:
Guinea is not a regional financial center. In the past three years,
Guinea has undergone profound political change, which has seen
it go from a country heavily focused on narcotics control and anti-
money laundering, to a country where these issues take a back
seat to more pertinent issues such as democratization and
macroeconomic reform. Guinea’s economy is weak and largely
cash-dependant and its fragile banking sector is an unlikely
conduit for large-scale money laundering activities. However, due
to its history of political instability, high corruption, and neighbors
such as Guinea-Bissau, Guinea has been an historical hub of
drug trafficking. The scale of trafficking and level of funding that
trafficking funnels into other spheres, such as international
terrorism, is unknown. Reliable figures and estimates are
unavailable, as Guinea’s security forces are ill-equipped and
disorganized, relying upon international institutions to carry out
large-scale investigations into trafficking activities.
Because of the weak banking institutions and reliance on hard-
currency, the Guinean black market is a thriving and vital part of
the economy. Contraband is common, with estimates that up to 70-
80% of all pharmaceutical goods sold in Guinean markets are
counterfeit. Foreign currency exchange is a popular activity in the
black market, as the official state sanctioned exchange rate for
the local Guinean Franc (GnF) to the US dollar or euro does not
come close to the actual exchange rate. Almost all major
commercial activities are completed in foreign currency. The
mining sector accounts for more than 70% of exports. Long-run
improvements in government fiscal arrangements, literacy, and
the legal framework are needed if the country is to move out of
poverty.
DO FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ENGAGE IN CURRENCY
TRANSACTIONS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS
TRAFFICKING THAT INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF US
CURRENCY; CURRENCY DERIVED FROM ILLEGAL SALES IN
THE U.S.; OR THAT OTHERWISE SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECT THE
U.S.: NO
CRIMINALIZATION OF MONEY LAUNDERING:
“All serious crimes” approach or “list” approach to predicate
crimes: All serious crimes
Legal persons covered: criminally: YES civilly: YES
CRIMINALIZATION OF TERRORIST FINANCING:
Ability to freeze terrorist assets without delay: NO
UN lists of designated terrorists or terrorist entities distributed to
financial institutions: YES
KNOW-YOUR-CUSTOMER RULES:
Covered entities: Public Treasury, Central Bank, financial
institutions, real estate and travel agencies, auditors, service
companies, cash couriers, casinos, NGOs, lawyers, accountants,
brokers, dealers, notaries
Enhanced due diligence procedures for PEPs: Foreign: YES
Domestic: YES
SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTION REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:
Covered entities: Public Treasury, Central Bank, financial
Institutions, real estate and travel agencies, auditors, service
companies, cash couriers, casinos, NGOs, lawyers, accountants,
brokers, dealers, notaries
Number of STRs received and time frame: Not available
Number of CTRs received and time frame: Not available
MONEY LAUNDERING CRIMINAL
PROSECUTIONS/CONVICTIONS:
Prosecutions: Not available
Convictions: Not available
Assets forfeited: criminally: Not available civilly: Not available
RECORDS EXCHANGE MECHANISM:
With U.S.: YES
With other governments/jurisdictions: YES
Guinea is a member of the Intergovernmental Action Group
against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorist in West
Africa (GIABA), a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style
regional body. Guinea has not yet undergone a mutual evaluation.
ENFORCEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES AND
COMMENTS:
Effective enforcement of the existing laws continues to be the
largest issue in Guinea. During 2009, Guinea was run by a
military junta which frequently created charges of drug trafficking
to arrest, intimidate, and steal from political enemies and wealthy
citizens and businesses. In the few instances where individuals
did go to trial, the proceedings amounted to little more than a
show-trial, and final rulings were rarely announced.
In February 2010, the junta government was replaced by a
Transition Government, which governed Guinea until democratic
elections in June and November, 2010. The Transition
Government suffered from a severe lack of funds and an
overwhelming concentration on organizing presidential elections,
leaving money laundering and trafficking issues to become
relegated to non-priority topics.
Although there are institutions in place to investigate money
laundering and financial irregularities, they are severely limited in
authority and scope. For example, the financial intelligence unit,
headquartered in the Central Bank, is hampered by a lack of
resources, corruption, and political instability.
The Guinean security forces are also ill-equipped and under-
trained. For the last several years, they have been reliant upon
outside assistance and training in matters of money laundering
and prosecution. In cases where legal means do take their proper
course, the proceedings are usually derailed at the judicial level –
or within higher government ranks. Transparency International’s
2010 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Guinea as the 164 of
178 countries worldwide.
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Narcotics Report 2012 (introduction):
Despite some genuine efforts by the GoG to combat the narcotics
trade, the issue remains a secondary priority. It remains to be
seen if newly elected President Alpha Conde will take efficacious
action in combating the narcotics trade during his term of office.
So far, Conde has focused more on other priorities. During the
past two decades, Guinea has experienced a series of dramatic
events that have tended to produce two distinctly separate and
diametrically opposed approaches towards narcotics issues-
either the Government of Guinea (GoG) focused attention on
narcotics with unprecedented and (ostensibly) earnest interest, or
the GoG relegated the issue to insignificance. The direction taken
by the GoG at any given point in time was generally dependent on
the prevailing political climate and the agenda of the president
holding power. In some cases, the intent of the government’s
focus on the narcotics issue seemed to be manipulative- i.e.; to
convince foreign observers that more effective action was being
taken than was actually the case. In other instances, the GoG
demonstrated the best of intentions to attempt to address
narcotics issues, but enforcement of drug laws was left to the
country’s under-resourced and inadequately trained police and
military, which did their best to carry out their responsibilities, but
were ultimately ineffective. Guinea is a party to the 1988 UN Drug
Convention.
For Full report, click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2011
(introduction):
(Tier 2 Watch List)
Guinea is a source, transit, and to a lesser extent, a destination
country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor
and sex trafficking. The majority of Guinea’s trafficking victims are
children, and incidents of trafficking are more prevalent among
Guinean citizens than foreign migrants residing in Guinea. Girls
are often subjected to domestic servitude and commercial sexual
exploitation, while boys are forced to beg on the streets or to work
as street vendors, shoe shiners, and laborers in gold and
diamond mines. Some Guinean men are subjected to forced
agricultural labor. Smaller numbers of girls from Mali, Sierra
Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and
Guinea-Bissau migrate to Guinea, where they are subjected to
domestic servitude and likely also commercial sexual exploitation.
Some Guinean boys and girls are subjected to forced labor in
gold mining in Senegal, Mali, and possibly other African countries.
Guinean women and girls are subjected to domestic servitude and
forced and child prostitution in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin,
Senegal, Greece, and Spain. Chinese women are brought to
Guinea for commercial sexual exploitation by Chinese traffickers,
and women from Vietnam are reportedly forced into prostitution in
hotels and restaurants in Guinea. Networks also traffic women
from Nigeria, India, and Greece through Guinea to the Maghreb
and onward to Europe – notably Italy, Ukraine, Switzerland, and
France – for forced prostitution and domestic servitude.
The Government of Guinea does not fully comply with the
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is
making significant efforts to do so. During the reporting year,
virtually all of Guinea’s transition government’s attention and
funding were devoted to the first democratic election in the
country’s 52-year post-colonial history. Although the government
acknowledges that trafficking in persons is a problem in Guinea, it
is unclear if the new government, which took power in December
2010, will demonstrate an increase over the previous regime’s
minimal efforts to combat trafficking. The government failed to
investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses; no new
prosecutions or convictions were reported, 12 cases from the
previous reporting period remain pending in the courts, and 18
additional cases have disappeared from the court system. The
government created a specialized police unit responsible for child
labor and child trafficking investigations; however, a failure to
clearly define the relationship of this unit to the National
Committee to Fight Against Trafficking in Persons has led to
internal conflict over the government’s limited anti-trafficking
funds. The government failed to provide protection to trafficking
victims, and although the government conducted an anti-
trafficking awareness campaign on radio and television, overall
prevention efforts remained weak. Therefore, Guinea is placed on
Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year. Guinea was not
placed on Tier 3 per Section 107 of the 2008 Trafficking Victims
Protection Reauthorization Act, however, as the government has
a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute making
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking and is devoting
sufficient resources to implement that plan.
For full report click here
____________________________________________________
US State Dept Terrorism Report 2009
No report available
____________________________________________________
Links:
Worldwide AML Legislation (International Bar Association)
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| GUINEA |
| KnowYourCountry |
|
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Extracted from IMF Report - Guinea: Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper—Annual Progress Report - Fighting corruption
and impunity (March 2012)
Corruption and similar practices are obstacles to economic development
and poverty reduction. Studies of this phenomenon indicate economic
agents pay a total of GNF 500 billion per year in bribes and spend a
considerable amount of time understanding the constantly changing tax
and customs administration rules.
Audits of public finances have been conducted in the past four years and
have resulted in recoveries. In 2007, 13 purchase contracts worth over
GNF 100 million were audited and the results were published in 2008.
As part of its efforts to strengthen transparency in the management of
public affairs and fight corruption, the government instituted a system of
quarterly audits, which is one of the triggers for the HIPC completion
point. An interministerial committee was established to recover debts to
the government, and succeeded in recovering GNF 138,782,271,394 for
the Treasury, taxes, and cooperation account. In addition, training
sessions were conducted for government audit personnel.
To improve and maximize results, the government recommends the
following pillars of intervention:
strengthening the institutional framework of the National Governance
and Anti-Corruption Agency (ANBGLC) through the adoption of an
anticorruption law transposing the provisions of UN and African Union
anti-corruption conventions into national law;
preparing the proposed framework law on the national good
governance and anticorruption program;
conducting a survey to determine the level of corruption in Guinea;
improving transparency in the management of natural resources in the
context of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Kimberly
process and the Rio Convention, by strengthening the partnership
between all stakeholders concerned (administration, private institutions,
civil society, rule population, and decentralized administrations);
strengthening the capacities of the ANBGLC complaints bureau and
implementing decentralized mechanisms to receive public complaints of
corruption and similar practices;
continuing the establishment of regional governance and
anticorruption offices with a view toward expanding the chain of
partnership with civil society in implementing citizen control of local
resources and fighting corruption at the local and regional level;
organizing citizen awareness and mobilization campaign against
corruption through outreach on anticorruption conventions, laws, and
regulations, including the content of the central government budget and
the rules and procedures governing the award of public contracts;
continuing with the project to improve the public contracting framework;
continuing the audits of all central and decentralized agencies; and
outreach concerning the African Peer Review Mechanism with a view
toward Guinea’s accession to this mechanism of good governance in the
very near future.
Read Report
Strategy Paper—Annual Progress Report - Fighting corruption
and impunity (March 2012)
Corruption and similar practices are obstacles to economic development
and poverty reduction. Studies of this phenomenon indicate economic
agents pay a total of GNF 500 billion per year in bribes and spend a
considerable amount of time understanding the constantly changing tax
and customs administration rules.
Audits of public finances have been conducted in the past four years and
have resulted in recoveries. In 2007, 13 purchase contracts worth over
GNF 100 million were audited and the results were published in 2008.
As part of its efforts to strengthen transparency in the management of
public affairs and fight corruption, the government instituted a system of
quarterly audits, which is one of the triggers for the HIPC completion
point. An interministerial committee was established to recover debts to
the government, and succeeded in recovering GNF 138,782,271,394 for
the Treasury, taxes, and cooperation account. In addition, training
sessions were conducted for government audit personnel.
To improve and maximize results, the government recommends the
following pillars of intervention:
strengthening the institutional framework of the National Governance
and Anti-Corruption Agency (ANBGLC) through the adoption of an
anticorruption law transposing the provisions of UN and African Union
anti-corruption conventions into national law;
preparing the proposed framework law on the national good
governance and anticorruption program;
conducting a survey to determine the level of corruption in Guinea;
improving transparency in the management of natural resources in the
context of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Kimberly
process and the Rio Convention, by strengthening the partnership
between all stakeholders concerned (administration, private institutions,
civil society, rule population, and decentralized administrations);
strengthening the capacities of the ANBGLC complaints bureau and
implementing decentralized mechanisms to receive public complaints of
corruption and similar practices;
continuing the establishment of regional governance and
anticorruption offices with a view toward expanding the chain of
partnership with civil society in implementing citizen control of local
resources and fighting corruption at the local and regional level;
organizing citizen awareness and mobilization campaign against
corruption through outreach on anticorruption conventions, laws, and
regulations, including the content of the central government budget and
the rules and procedures governing the award of public contracts;
continuing with the project to improve the public contracting framework;
continuing the audits of all central and decentralized agencies; and
outreach concerning the African Peer Review Mechanism with a view
toward Guinea’s accession to this mechanism of good governance in the
very near future.
Read Report
| Last Updated: 16 April 2012 |