Background
Bulk currency counters are an important anti-money laundering tool because they can capture currency serial numbers, data useful for detecting and investigating financial crimes. The machines purchased for KBL6 were designed to record currency serial numbers, create databases, and process up to 900 bills per minute. They also were intended to transmit these data via an internet link to the Financial Transactions and Records Analysis Center of Afghanistan (FinTRACA). FinTRACA—part of Afghanistan’s Central Bank (Da Afghanistan
Bank)—uses data on financial activity to identify financial crimes and assist law enforcement agencies in the investigation and prosecution of criminal activity.
In 2011, SIGAR found that:
- Although the contract to install these bulk currency counters at airport customs areas was awarded in July 2010, they were not installed until April 2011, in part because U.S. and Afghan officials disagreed on where to put them
- When we visited the airport in April 2011, the machines were being used to count declared cash, but not to record currency serial numbers and report financial data to FinTRACA.
- Passengers designated by GIRoA as Very Important Persons (VIPs) could bypass the main security and customs screenings and instead use a separate facility to enter the airport’s secured area. While these VIPs were required to declare the amount of currency they were carrying, their cash was not scanned through bulk currency counters, and Afghan officials reportedly had no plans to do so.
Despite this lack of cooperation from Afghan officials to fully implement the bulk cash flow action plan, GIRoA has continued to make public commitments to combat corruption and institute stronger border controls. At the July 2012 Tokyo Conference, for example, GIRoA agreed to implement recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force Asia Pacific Group, which publishes internationally recognized standard to protect against money laundering and terrorist financing. Among these recommendations is one stating that countries’ financial intelligence units should have access on a timely basis to the financial, administrative and law enforcement information that it requires to undertake its functions properly—the type of information meant to be collected and transmitted by the currency counters at KBL.
Link to the detailed report by SIGAR (Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction) : click here