Edward Akol, Uganda’s Auditor General
The Auditor General, Edward Akol has questioned the capacity of Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) in fighting financial crimes in Uganda.
“Out of the 7,975 reports analysed, only 241 resulted into generation of intelligence reports and the difference of 7,734 are to be closed while gathering more information and intelligence. The pending analysis of reports and hence storage of the same was attributed to the delay and/or failure to obtain additional information from stakeholders,” Akol says in the December 2025 Auditor General’s report to Parliament.
This follows the Value for Money Audit conducted into the performance of the Financial Intelligence Authority in the Anti-Money Laundering Chain, that revealed that the Authority faces challenges in effectively monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations due to limited human resources, inadequate inter agency collaboration and insufficient technological capacity among accountable institutions.
“Additionally, there is lack of public awareness on AML obligations due to limited FIA engagement with the public. This impacts FIA’s capacity to swiftly receive, analyse, and distribute intelligence reports to Law Enforcement Agencies and other relevant authorities to support investigations and prosecutions related to financial crimes, thereby hindering the detection of emerging money laundering threats exacerbated by advancements in digital finance,” the AG says in the report.
Among the key findings revealed by the Auditor General included the limited and low submission of Suspicious transactions and activity reports by institutions in the Financial Services Sector other than banking institutions and foreign exchange bureaus and non-submission of any suspicious transaction reports by licensing authorities and designated non-financial businesses and professions.
“This was due to non-registration of all licensed accountable persons; inadequate inspection and oversight of accountable persons for AMLA compliance; inadequate AML training and guidance to accountable persons and failure to impose administrative sanctions and fines to accountable persons for non-compliance to AMLA provisions,” the AG says.
The Office of the Auditor General also discovered delays in finalizing 79% of initiated money laundering investigations by selected Law Enforcement Agencies during the review period.
The delays in concluding investigations were attributed to delayed feedback on information requests, limited coordination among stakeholders, parallel investigations, difficulty in tracing money launders provided in the FIA intelligence reports, the need to re-profile suspects and generate intelligence by LEAs in instances where the FIA intelligence led to wrong suspects and the absence of standard timelines for investigating cases.
Akol made several recommendations including the need for FIA’s Management in collaboration with the AML chain stakeholders to prioritize and establish measures to register all licensed and known non-licensed accountable persons operating in the country in compliance with the requirements in the AMLA.
“Prioritization of registration of accountable persons should be dependent on any latest National Risk Assessment undertaken for the country. Strengthen the sanctions-based regime by imposing administrative sanctions and fines to accountable persons on noted non-compliance to the AMLA provisions such as failure to register with the authority. This should be in respect to the existing latest AML regulations,” argued Akol.
The Auditor General also wants FIA to implement ongoing sensitization and awareness campaigns for accountable persons, emphasizing their reporting obligations under AMLA writing, “In addition, FIA should undertake continuous inspections to accountable persons to review their institutional policies and indicators majorly on forming suspicion, review on resolved STRs/SARs and transaction monitoring to check compliance with amendments periodically undertaken on AML laws and regulations.”
The Auditor General defended the need for the value for money audit into operations of FIA arguing, “Money laundering is a global challenge that has far-reaching consequences on financial systems, economies and societal stability since it undermines legitimate businesses, reduces government revenues, damages financial systems, undermines national economies and currencies, erodes the integrity of a nation’s financial institutions and distorts economic data leading to ineffective policy planning.”
On a positive note, the Auditor General noted that the performance of FIA has improved over the years due to the initiatives undertaken in combating money laundering that included among others; Instituting mechanisms for reception of suspicious transaction and activity reports such as AML trainings and inspections, which enabled the FIA, record an overall 34% increase in the number of suspicious transactions and activities reported by accountable persons.
Akol wrote, “Establishing feedback mechanisms through strategic and operational engagements for information sharing, feedback tracking and reporting of outcomes with domestic and foreign stakeholders, which have facilitated learning and informed enhancements in reporting, analysis and dissemination and investigation by responsible players along the AML chain.”
But despite the improvement in its operations, the Auditor General has argued that in order for FIA to maximize its potential, the Authority needs to address the weaknesses identified during the audit, including the limited coverage and registration of accountable persons in the DNFBP sector, inadequate enforcement of compliance through sanctions, insufficient planning and budgeting for AML trainings and inspections, incomplete analysis of filed reports, and weak feedback mechanisms.
“Addressing these issues will require enhanced coordination and collaboration among all AML stakeholders. This will not only enhance the FIA’s efficiency but also secure the country’s financial systems from ML activities and improve its capacity to respond to evolving Money Laundering threats,” noted Akol.
Money laundering is the process of turning illegitimately obtained property into seemingly legitimate property and it includes concealing or disguising the nature, source, location, disposition or movement of the proceeds of crime and any activity which constitutes a crime under Section 119 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, Cap 118.
