HAVANA, Cuba, April 29 (ACN) The new Resolution 86/2026 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices updates, strengthens, and expands Cuba's actions and policies regarding the prevention of and the fight against money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Bookkeepers, or accountants, are key figures to preserve transparency in business, alert to risks, or report alleged crimes as serious as these, so they become primary subjects of the aforesaid normative already in effect after its publication in Gaceta Official No. 37.
Yenisley Ortiz Mantecón, Vice Minister of Finance and Prices, explained that Decree-Law 317 of 2012 is the highest-ranking legal framework for preventing and combating such financial activities, and that since its inception, a National Committee has been established, comprised of various agencies and institutions, including the Central Bank.
Although the new resolution follows others from recent years, it is notable for encompassing not only self-employed workers but also MSMEs, non-agricultural cooperatives, and local development projects engaged in bookkeeping, a force involving more than 1,700 non-state economic stakeholders who are subject to the current regulations.
The new legislation provides for the supervision and control of accounting records and features a reference guide to deal with presumed or suspicious transactions or fraudulent actions, including tax evasion, which are severely penalized under Cuban law.
According to both Ms. Ortiz and Dalaimis Wilson Brooks, senior specialist at the Taxpayer Services Division of the National Tax Administration Office, there is a training program in place for these individuals and local administrative entities bound to help non-state economic stakeholders do their duty regarding the identification and assessment of threats and vulnerabilities using a risk-based approach in order to confirm the commission of any of the aforesaid crimes during the provision of their services.
They are required to practice due diligence, know their customers, and identify the ultimate beneficial owner of the business for which they work, as well as to alert the relevant authorities to suspicious transactions linked to money laundering, terrorist financing, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, among other crimes.
They may even refrain from providing services to clients who are on international lists or on the national list, of individuals and entities linked to terrorist activities.
Given the importance and scope of this policy, Cuba, as a member country of the Grupo de Acción Financiera de Latinoamérica (GAFILAT), intends to keep improving it with better training, control and supervision programs for those responsible for and involved in accounting activities.
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