Bypassing court warrants not enough, Banking Act reforms crucial: Azan

Parliament’s Central-Hithadhoo MP Ahmed Azaan Marzooq said on Tuesday that the proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, seeking to authorize Maldives Police Service to freeze bank accounts involved in scam activities, is not a sufficient counter-measure, and urged for reforms in the Banking Act.

The MP made the statement during the debate on the amendment bill, sponsored by North-Galolhu MP Mohamed Ibrahim at Tuesday’s sitting.

While speaking on the bill, Azaan said that though he supports the bill, he does not believe it would bring about significant measures to reduce scam or similar activities without banking sector reforms and raising public awareness. He also highlighted the prompt nature of rolling money across multiple accounts after the scammers acquire it from the victim’s account deceptively.

“In English, we call it a shell game, where the scammers will deposit the money across multiple accounts, making it hard for authorities to intervene,” Azaan said while debating on the bill.

As solutions, the MP proposed banking reforms to the banking act and introducing delayed settlements at the banks, that would ensure that scammers cannot transfer deceptively acquired money across other accounts promptly and introduction of pattern recognition for transactions.

Azaan’s arguments on the bill were supported by Manadhoo MP Husny Mubarik, who echoed similar sentiments and said that a holistic reform to the Criminal Procedure Act in parallel with Banking Act reforms, are necessary to stop scams. Husny also said that partial rectifications in separate occasions is not the ideal approach for such a significant and prevalent issue.

Besides this, Husny further noted that an amendment to Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Act will not be effective without first amending Article 72 of the same act, that stipulates that a court warrant can only be issued if a bank account is under investigation via a monitoring order.

Maamigili MP and Jumhoory Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim, who also spoke at Tuesday’s sitting on the bill, supported Azaan’s arguments. The veteran lawmaker noted that changes and upgrades to the banking system are necessary to ensure protection of customers’ assets.

Qasim also highlighted the lack of accountability on the part of commercial banks despite loss of millions of monies from customers, and argued that the banks should have to bear some form of responsibility. The MP had supported Azan’s suggestions of settlement delays as a counter-measure against scams.

The amendment to Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Act, grants authority to the Maldives Police Service, to bypass a court warrant, and freeze the accounts that are suspected of being involved in scams.

The bill is a response to the requests made by the law enforcement authority during a previous committee meeting, where Police highlighted that the legal requirement for a court order significantly delayed their efforts to intervene scammers.

Majority of the lawmakers who debated on the bill, coincided in the requirement for such a reform but highlighted that alone, is insufficient as a holistic counter-measure in stopping scam activities.