New York: The US federal authorities do not have an understanding of how terrorists move their financial assets and are struggling to prevent flow of money to terror groups, a report said.

The report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to be made public Sunday (Dec 14, 2003), also finds that the Internal Revenue Service has not developed a formal plan for sharing financial information with state authorities about charities under investigation.

The Treasury and Justice Departments have fallen nearly a year behind in developing a plan for attacking money laundering and issues like terrorists' use of black-market gems and gold, ‘The New York Times’ quoted the report as saying.

It said some agencies have failed to make prevention of terror financing a high priority or have set unrealistic goals for overhauling their tactics.

The findings, the paper said, come at a time when some government officials and lawmakers say they have grown increasingly concerned about weaknesses in the government's ability to track terror financing.

Law enforcement officials also acknowledge that gaining a clear understanding of how terrorists move their money has proven far more difficult than many anticipated and that recent attacks in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and elsewhere point to terror groups with continued access to significant resources, ‘The New York Times’ said.

PTI