The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) is boosting its forensic accounting capacity through a co-operation agreement with the Business School of North-West University (NWU).
The FIC’s Acting Director Pieter Smit, and NWU Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Linda du Plessis, signed the agreement on Wednesday, 6 March 2024. “We believe that a partnership between the SFC (Shared Forensic Capability division at the FIC) and NWU Business School will foster a powerful synergy between academic expertise and practical experience, significantly enhancing our collective ability to combat financial crimes and corruption,” said Smit.
The collaboration will see the SFC leveraging the expertise and know-how of the NWU Business School’s Unit for Corruption and Integrity Studies, as well as its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes to build forensic capacity in the SFC. The areas of co-operation include:
• Development of an in-house training programme for the SFC
• Data analysis and ICT system development for combating financial crimes
• Development and implementation of a mentorship programme for SFC staff
• Collaborative research initiatives and projects.
Established in April 2023, the SFC aims to extend forensic accounting support to law enforcement agencies and other competent authorities in their pursuit of high priority criminal matters. The SFC was launched following a resolution by the National Priority Crime Operational Committee, formerly known as the Anti Corruption Task Team.
The Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001 (Act 38 of 2001), as amended by the General Laws (Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing) Amendment Act, 2022 (Act 22 of 2022), extended the objectives of the FIC to produce forensic evidence for use by investigating, prosecutorial and other competent authorities.
Through this agreement, the FIC is gearing up its capacity to meet demands for forensic analysis in complex money laundering matters, as part of a collaborative South Arican effort to crack down on financial crime.
