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FIC Bill delays could harm SA's global standing - banking body

Cape Town - Cas Coovadia, managing director of the Banking Association of South Africa, has expressed concern over the delay in the ratification of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Bill.

Speaking to Fin24 on the sidelines of a parliamentary committee briefing on Wednesday, Coovadia said he disagreed with ANC members’ stance that the passing of the bill is not an urgent matter.

“We don’t agree that there’s no urgency. There is urgency. Although we shouldn’t be dictated to by global institutions, we can’t deny that we are a globally connected banking sector and respected for our global connectedness, and we have to work properly with these institutions.”

Coovadia’s comments came after Yunus Carrim, ANC MP and chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, ruled that Parliament will host public hearings on January 24 next year to get input from stakeholders regarding the constitutional reservations that had caused President Jacob Zuma to send it back to Parliament without signing it.

However, Coovadia added that he respects the process adopted by the parliamentary committee. “We will give both written and oral submissions at the hearings, and we urge the committee to expedite the process as much as they can.”

The Standing Committee on Finance heard representations from FIC executive manager Pieter Smit and National Treasury deputy director general Ismail Momoniat to obtain the institutions’ views on the constitutionality concerns expressed by Zuma.

Only one incident in over 930 searches

In response to a question about how many warrantless searches have taken place over the years, Smit said there had been over 930 such inspections up until March 2016.

“All of those were done without a warrant and all of those were conducted with the consent of the inspected parties.”

Smit said there was only one incident where an inspection had taken place but where consent hadn’t been granted by the inspected party, and that was with Auction Alliance. The Estate Agency Affairs Board made the inspection.

After hearing the submissions, Carrim ruled that the committee will convene again in January to obtain input from stakeholders, but the input will be limited to the constitutional concerns raised by Zuma.

He added that the finance committee is obliged to make up its own mind about whether the FIC Bill is constitutional.

“We either disagree with the president’s lawyers, or we can delete the provision in question altogether, or we amend the bill,” Carrim said.

Zuma’s issue with the bill that landed on his desk centred on warrantless searches of suspect individuals, which may result in the criminal prosecution of these people.

The United Democratic Movement's Nqabayomzi Kwankwa conceded during the deliberations that warrantless searches may indeed pose a threat to individuals, but Carrim said it’s a practice that takes place “all over the world”.

“There’s nothing unique about this. Warrantless searches under exceptional circumstances are normal.”

Senior parliamentary legal adviser Advocate Frank Jenkins referred MPs to a Constitutional Court ruling that said warrantless searches or searches with a warrant are for the “legislature” to decide.

A warrantless search could take place if there are reasonable grounds that a warrant would have been granted under the specific circumstances and if there are compelling reasons that the delay in obtaining the warrant could hamper the search, Jenkins continued. 

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