CABEI shares international best practices in the fight against financial crime

28/02/2022

The multilateral developed the virtual meeting "100% Development, Zero Tolerance to Prohibited Practices" with its Communicators Network of allied institutions.

Tegucigalpa, February 25th, 2022.- This Friday, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) held a virtual meeting with the Network of Communicators from allied public institutions in order to share best practices in the fight against international crime and its experience in preventing the risks of Money Laundering, Terrorism Financing and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (ML-TF/FPADM), Integrity (Anti-Fraud/Anti-Corruption) and Sanctions in its operations.

In this event, entitled "100% Development, Zero Tolerance for Prohibited Practices," CABEI's Chief of the Integrity and Compliance Office, Rennie Valladares, explained the actions taken by the multilateral institution to ensure that its products and services are not used to give the appearance of legality to funds from illicit activities or serve for activities that hinder its efforts to promote the integration and economic development of its member countries.

The above, implementing Integrity mechanisms through its Anti-Fraud, Anti-Corruption and Other Prohibited Practices Policy that allow preventing, detecting, investigating and sanctioning the occurrence of such activities, thus joining the international effort involved in the fight against Anti-Fraud/Anti-Corruption and adopting basic principles of "Zero Tolerance."

"CABEI is committed to the fight against financial crime and, in accordance with its fiduciary duty, ensures the protection of its member countries' resources by preventing the detour of their funds for purposes incompatible with its strategic objectives and, therefore, maintains controls in line with international principles," explained CABEI's Executive President, Dr. Dante Mossi.

Implementation

All CABEI personnel, counterparties and related parties assume the commitment to act in compliance with the regulations governing the ML-TF/ ML-TF Risk Management System, Integrity and CABEI Sanctions, so that the model becomes part of the institutional culture, empowering all parties and integrating it into the daily activities of the organization and its operations.

The Integrity and Compliance Office evaluates controls throughout the organization by means of Compliance Reviews, while the Procurement Unit has developed a Policy with principles applicable to procurement processes with CABEI resources: integrity, transparency, competition, equality, due process and publicity.

The Supervision Unit periodically evaluates the evolution of the performance of each project/program and assigns a rating to the projects in execution, allowing preventive or corrective actions to be taken. Likewise, the business areas ensure that independent audits are included in the operations in order to monitor the proper use of resources, and the promotion of available means of reporting, among others.

Who can report?

Any person (natural or legal), including CABEI staff or related third parties, can make a report/complaint through the following channels: a direct line through the website (Report Channel), a toll-free local voice line in each country and an international line with outsourced attention in English/Spanish, e-mail and a physical mailbox, located in CABEI's Headquarters Building.

Reports/complaints submitted anonymously will be accepted and treated confidentially by CABEI, both the identity of the informant and the identity of the reported, as well as all data derived from the process carried out upon receipt of a report. Reports/denunciations of events or incidents that are more than ten years old will not be accepted.

What types of cases or complaints can be reported?

Irregularities or prohibited practices (fraud, corruption, collusion, coercion, obstruction) in the use of CABEI resources or funds administered by CABEI may be reported. Likewise, facts related to environmental and/or social issues associated with CABEI-financed projects may be reported, as well as issues related to breaches of ethics or norms of conduct by CABEI employees and any other complaint.

No one at CABEI, regardless of his or her rank, may take any action or measure against anyone who has filed a report/complaint, nor may he or she take any action or measure against third parties that could be construed as retaliation for the filing of a report/complaint.

As part of its commitment to prevent and mitigate the effects of these crimes, CABEI has established training programs in conjunction with other Latin American financial organizations, and has made efforts to ensure that public and private institutions involved in the prevention chain implement best practices in this area.

Dr. Mossi emphasized that CABEI does not tolerate the occurrence of prohibited practices in its operations, promoting the efficient use of its resources towards the development objectives of its member countries.

 

 

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