European Union support Central Asian countries in combating corruption and economic crime
The Council of Europe and the European Union continue to facilitate the enhancement of national systems of Central Asian countries in the area of fighting and preventing economic crime and corruption. During the two-day regional hybrid conference on 9-10 December 2021, the law enforcement authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan discussed topics aimed at improving the regulatory and procedural frameworks on financial investigations in Central Asia. The conference concluded today in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz Republic.
The event was organised under the project “Promoting transparency and action against economic crime” which is part of a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Union, Central Asia Rule of Law Programme 2020-2023.
The Council of Europe experts and representatives of state authorities and law enforcement institutions of the participating countries exchanged views on financial investigation practices in the region and identified common challenges in relation to money laundering and interagency co-operation.
The experts of the Council of Europe presented the results of their analysis of legislative and institutional frameworks of Central Asian countries and provided recommendations on their improvement in accordance with international standards and good practices. In particular, the proposals concern the necessity to further regulate protection of whistleblowers, setting specialist asset management agency and a database for seized/frozen/confiscated assets, establishing shared investigation/intelligence databases and a corruption hotline as well as introducing a postponed confiscation after conviction, account monitoring orders and non-conviction-based asset forfeiture. Further discussions of the findings with the national authorities allowed to identify current needs of each country which will serve as a basis for the preparation of a manual for financial investigations and a regional training session for officials of the Central Asian countries.
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