Financial watch unit upgrades data system
By Charles Pitt

James Hannigan (left) & Dominic Mullins

Two computer experts from the Australian Government’s Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre are here for a week assisting our Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to enhance their computer database.
Dominic Mullins and James Hannigan arrived on Tuesday and have been working with Walter Henry.
Mullins advised the Cook Islands Times the FIU database was set up in November 2004 with assistance from AusAid to collect, store and analyse financial information. He assisted former FIU Head Cath Kara with the project.
Mullins said the Cook Islands was trialed as the country to develop the application as it was more advanced in terms of its financial requirements.
The Cook Islands said Mullins had worked hard to gain removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s “blacklist”. As a consequence it had assumed a leadership role in the region through being a role model for other small countries in terms of training, procedures and data capture and analysis.
The project was completed in December 2005, said Mullins.
This visit is a follow up to enhance the database and do a stock take, Mullins explained. The Cook Islands is the first country to be visited for this purpose. Following this, a further five to six countries in the region will be visited.
The extra enhancements will keep the Cook Islands at the forefront. They include installing an electronic file up mode and enabling existing reports to be entered.
Mullins and Hannigan depart next Wednesday.

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