[Photo: FILE]

Police investigators were shut out of direct access to key financial intelligence until 2024.

The gap limited how quickly police could trace money linked to crime.

This was revealed when police appeared before the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs to discuss the Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit’s 2024 Annual Report.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Crime Loraini Seru explained that police had a liaison officer based at the FIU, but this did not give investigators and forensic accountants access to the FIU’s TREG system.

She said 2024 was the first year forensic accountants were given passwords to access the system.

Before that, financial intelligence was being passed to individual investigators or divisions.

Acting Deputy Commissioner of Police Operations Meli Sateki also stated that this created problems in tracking the information and the action taken on it.

He says there was also no central focal point within the Police Force to manage the intelligence received from the FIU.

“But we currently have because the dissemination of the report that I have presented was directly to our respective division instead of directly to a focal point. And we were finding challenges in terms of monitoring the information that we were receiving to ensure that there is proper accountability on what actions that we have (3:34) undertaken and also a feedback to the FIU in regards to the information that we shared with.”

Sateki says this made it difficult to ensure information was properly followed up and that feedback was sent back to the FIU.

The Police Force, according to the senior officers has now tightened the system.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Unit is now the main channel for requests from police stations.

She says divisional directors also take responsibility for the Suspicious Transaction Reports and intelligence reports received from the FIU.

The changes come after police acknowledged gaps in the 2024 system for receiving, sharing and acting on financial intelligence.

For police, the focus is now on making sure intelligence does not stop at the point of referral but leads to action and follow-up.