UNODC contributes to Kazakhstan's regional practitioners in financial investigations and asset recovery

On 13-15 March 2023, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the General Prosecutor's Office and the Law Enforcement Academy under the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan conducted a workshop on "Financial Investigations and Asset Recovery" for some 28 specialists from regional departments of the Prosecutor's Office and the Economic Investigations Service of the Financial Monitoring Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

This training is the logical continuation of the systematic work carried out by the UNODC and partners in the framework of the UNODC Global Programme against Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and in the run-up of the on-going mutual evaluation of Kazakhstan by the Eurasian group on combating money laundering and financing of terrorism (EAG) for compliance with Financial Action Task (FATF) international standards and recommendations.

“The FATF compliance assessment looks not only at technical compliance but also at the effectiveness of the AML/CFT system”, says Aliaksandr Vadziany, UNODC Advisor on AML/CFT in Central Asia. “UNODC’s priority in this sphere is to render technical assistance to the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan in strengthening legal systems, policies, national strategies and state authorities' capacity to features and techniques of financial investigations and assets recovery, identify illicit financial flows and investigate AML/CFT-related crimes”.

UNODC, jointly with the national partners, continues series of training workshops for central offices and regional offices of law enforcement authorities of Kazakhstan responsible for AML/CFT, financial investigations and assets recovery.

The Academy, together with UNODC, continues to strengthen inter-agency cooperation in financial investigations and asset recovery as one of the AML/CFT priorities. As a result of the seminar, the level of inter-agency cooperation in financial investigations and asset recovery was raised.

UNODC and Law Enforcement Academy cooperation

UNODC and the Academy under the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan started its cooperation on capacity building of the police and prosecutors on Anti-Money laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) in 2020. Since then, over 150 national specialists of the competent authorities of Kazakhstan took part in the trainings and improved their knowledge and skills on AML/CFT issues.

To continue the development of AML/CFT specialists, UNODC together with the Academy and the Agency for Financial Monitoring piloted the first project to establish a National Professional Development System (PDS) for Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

The National Professional Development System is an online platform with educational materials on AML/CFT to do distance learning and obtain certificates upon its completion. The system is introduced to the Academy’s training curriculum.

It is essential to emphasize the efforts of the Law Enforcement Academy under the Prosecutor General's Office for Kazakhstan and the Central Asian countries in developing and implementing the institutional framework and staffing, as well as developing interaction and international cooperation of national partners in combating illicit financial flows, money laundering and terrorist financing.

This work is undergoing with expert support from the UNODC Global Programme against Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and the financing of Terrorism (GPML) and financial support from the US Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

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For more information, contact Vasilina Brazhko

Communication and PR Specialist at

Criminal Justice sub-Programme in Central Asia

UNODC ROCA and UNODC PO in the Kyrgyz Republic

At + 996775987817 or website:

vasilina.brazhko[at]un.org