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The Financial Intelligence Unit cannot say how many of the 237 intelligence cases it referred to law enforcement resulted in prosecution.

FIU Director Caroline Pickering told the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs that the unit does not receive comprehensive and systematic feedback from its law enforcement partners.

“Those are one-off reports to the council. It’s not systematic reporting to the FIU on what has happened to all the cases you’ve disseminated in a year.”

Pickering states that this prevents the FIU from giving Parliament a definite figure on how many cases progressed to prosecution.

She says intelligence can face several hurdles before reaching court.

Committee Chair Sakiusa Tunabuna identified this as a major weakness in the system.

He says when intelligence is provided, there should be a clear process showing whether it was investigated and whether it eventually reached court.

Tunabuna said the information was also not coming back to the FIU and that this gap needs to be urgently addressed.

Committee member Premilla Kumar took the criticism further.

She questioned the value of collecting millions of pieces of information if the system cannot show what happened after the intelligence was shared.

Kumar says the committee cannot properly scrutinise the FIU when it does not have the outcome of cases referred to other agencies.

Pickering says police have provided statistics at meetings of the Anti-Money Laundering Council, but these are one-off updates.

She says the FIU needs case-by-case feedback showing what happened after intelligence was disseminated.

FIU Manager Intelligence Management Ester Sue then explained that the unit has also sought help from international counterparts, including Australia’s AUSTRAC, to improve its feedback system.

She said the FIU has introduced surveys asking agencies whether intelligence was useful, whether it led to new investigations or identified new leads.

Sue said the FIU also follows up directly on high-priority cases.

But she states the unit wants law enforcement agencies to provide specific feedback when cases close, including whether the intelligence was incomplete, incorrect or insufficient.

Pickering adds that FIU accepts the need for better feedback and will continue working with partner agencies to establish a more systematic process.