On 8-13 October 2021, key Experts from the EU Global Facility met with a number of representatives from entities of Panama’s financial penal and investigation chain to agree on the future course of action. This scoping mission came as a result of the fruitful start of technical assistance activities delivered to Panama since May 2021.
In March 2021, the EU Global Facility received a request for technical assistance on Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO) and Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) from Panama.
A month later, a work programme was shared with the country, followed by the kick-off of activities in May.
A set of e-training sessions and mentoring activities was delivered over the next six months, focusing on:
- -UBO: Work focused on building a national BO disclosure framework, scoping review, and IT Procurement methodology.
- -LEA: three e-training courses on parallel investigations, proactive investigations and cash smuggling.
- -Mentorship “ICRG” to reinforce the capacity of the national authorities to cooperate and coordinate their tasks with foreign technical assistance providers, and according to the FATF action plan.
The partnership culminated with the one-week scoping mission conducted by the GF’s team on 8-13 October.This provided the opportunity to discuss with the national competent authorities and other partners, including the EU Delegation, French, German, US and UK embassies, as well as Transparency International.
What are the perspectives?
- – To consolidate the partnership with the national competent authorities and foreign technical assistance providers
- – Following the discussions held to consolidate the technical assistance programme on IO5, IO7 and IO1 through training/mentoring sessions, workshops, conferences
The EU GF is already planning its next visit to Panama on 8 – 9 November 2021.
This project is funded by the European Union.