Shaun takes swipe at Pravin

National director of public prosecutions Shaun Abrahams yesterday indirectly accused former finance minister Pravin Gordhan of hampering the fight against illicit money flows and money-laundering by failing to establish a special advisory council provided for in the previous version of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act (Fica).

At a media briefing by Justice Minister Michael Masutha ahead of his department’s budget vote, both the minister and Abrahams said prosecution of financial crimes had suffered because successive finance ministers never set up the council.

Masutha said the body was critical to ensure that illicit financial dealings were not merely identified, but actually referred to law enforcement bodies for investigation. It was of concern that the amended version of the Act did away with the council, he added, and suggested it should be reintroduced via regulations.

“Since the council was envisioned in 2002 in legislation it was not caused to come to life and that was a fundamental mistake. The onus was on the ministers of finance during the entire period of 15 years while Fica existed for the council to come to life because they were responsible for the administration,” said Abrahams.

“The challenges that we face today as a country in our ability to combat money-laundering, illicit financial flows and terror financing are as a direct result, and I say this respectfully, of various finance ministers failing to constitute the Counter Money-Laundering Advisory Council.”

He said the Financial Intelligence Centre Act had placed a strict responsibility on the finance minister to appoint a chairperson to the council, so that the chairperson could formally constitute the council.

The council was meant to include the director-generals of finance and justice, the commissioner of the South African Revenue Service and the governor of the Reserve Bank.

The briefing continued to other subjects, but Abrahams interrupted Masutha to say Gordhan was responsible for the fact that an attempt to hold the inaugural meeting of the council in January had failed because he did not abide by the regulations governing it. These determined that the meeting needed to be chaired by one of the members, but Gordhan had asked the then deputy minister of finance, Mcebisi Jonas, to chair.

Masutha said he had brought up the subject with Gordhan’s successor, Malusi Gigaba.

“We had a meeting with Minister Gigaba to try and improve co-operation. We will be approaching Cabinet with proposals to remedy the weaknesses that have bedevilled the functioning of the Fica system,” said Abrahams.

“Every effort must be made to retain this council otherwise we are going to continue to face the same challenges.” – ANA some sort of fulfilment by helping somebody, whatever the consequence was,” he said, sitting in a small office at a police station in Kathmandu wearing a green T-shirt, boardshorts and flipflops.

“I couldn’t figure out what to do and then I realised if there’s one place in the world where there’s a guarantee that I could help people then that’s Mount Everest,” he said.

Davy said he was motivated by the controversial death of British mountaineer David Sharp near the summit of Everest in 2006.

Sharp’s death sparked a heated debate within the climbing community because a number of climbers passed him during their ascent to the summit but did not stop to help.

“I’d learned about the David Sharp scenario, where a lot of the climbers got summit fever and a lot of the climbers walked right past a dying man. So I was worried maybe the same thing would happen,” Davy said.

Once he reached the summit, Davy said he had planned to cross to the Tibet side of the mountain – a move that would have landed him in trouble with the Chinese authorities as well. “I wanted to traverse actually. I know that’s illegal,” Davy said.

“By traversing I could have been able to help people on the north side because a lot of people struggle on the steps, so if there were any potential fatalities, I was hoping I could be of service.”

Davy, who is due to appear in court on Sunday, could face up to four years in prison if he cannot pay the hefty fine, director of the tourism department Dinesh Bhattarai said.

In addition to a $22 000 fine for climbing Everest without permission, Davy could be hit with another $1 500 fee for partially scaling Pumori and Lobuche, two neighbouring mountains, said Bhattarai.

The filmmaker is also facing charges under Nepal’s strict public order laws for swearing at officials from the tourism department during questioning – allegations Davy denies.

Johannesburg-born but US based, Davy moved to Aspen, Colorado six months ago to begin preparing for his Everest bid, living out of the back of a van because he was short on cash.

“For the last six months prior to my Everest expedition I just focused all my attention on learning how to climb, learning how to use the equipment,” he said. “I know I could have ended up in trouble, but I was really hoping nobody would have had to come to my aid because I didn’t want to risk anybody else’s life. My only real regret is that I was caught before I was able to do any good.” – AFP