We completed a week-long training of trainers’ workshop on financial investigations, held in Entebbe, Uganda.
This follows the successful process that the AML- CFT ESCAY project spearheaded, assisting four countries to develop a tailor-made curriculum on financial investigations.
Thanks to funding from the European Commission, the four countries developed curricula for use by police academies and prosecution training institutions in each of their countries.
The four countries – Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda -launched and validated the curricula for use in their national institutions.
The country teams that developed the curricula attended the workshop to be trained to become trainers. For the European Commission who have funded this project for many years, and for CIVIPOL who have implemented this project, this training of trainers is a great step in ensuring the sustainability of the gains made in the region, beyond the life of the AML CFT ESCAY project.
The training of police and prosecutors using the curricula by the trained trainers will ensure that, investigators and prosecutors in each represented country, will approach investigation and prosecution of organised crimes from a harmonised perspective. They will also read from the same script, not only nationally but also regionally. The quality of financial investigations will improve through successful investigation and prosecution of cases related to financial crime and illicit financial flows, in the region and by extension, on the continent.
This, for us, is what success looks like!
To officiate the official opening of this workshop, we were graciously joined by Mr Samuel Were Wandera, the Executive Director of Uganda’s Financial Intelligence Authority and by Mr Nicolas Gonze, the Head of Governance and social Inclusion at the EU Delegation to Uganda.
At the end of the training, over 30 trainers completed the course and were awarded certificates.
We are proud of the trainers and 5 countries for this great step towards a harmonized inter-agency approach to investigating and prosecuting financial crimes.
We are content to know that the support provided by the European Commission – from the first pilot project in Kenya to the culmination of ToT training in Uganda – will outlive this project. The curricula will become living documents within national institutions and training will be delivered by local experts.
