President Wesley W. Simina formally opened a workshop spearheaded by the FSM Department of Justice (DOJ) on June 1-2, 2023 in Palikir, entitled: Building DOJ Intelligence Capability Towards Raising Accountability in Public Service & Detecting and Prosecuting Crimes. This workshop forms part of DOJ’s commitment to bringing together National Police, Prosecutors, Investigators, Public Auditors, and Cyber security and intelligence practitioners, and be able to strengthen intelligence capabilities as one smart law enforcement team.
In his remarks, President Simina elaborated on the role of intelligence in conducting police investigation and providing overall support to border control agencies. He further encouraged the participants to develop effective policing strategies that bring more efficiency in managing law enforcement functions. While President Simina noted the persistent challenges of transnational crimes; at the same time, he expressed optimism that with FSM as host to the Micronesian Transnational Crime Unit (MTCU) these challenges could be addressed by leveraging on the MTCU network, the Pacific Fusion Center and INTERPOL partners and meet the emerging security and law enforcement challenges in the region.
Noting that the intelligence function was returned recently to the DOJ, the President commended the DOJ Team for supporting and operationalizing the transition.
Acting Justice Secretary Leonito Bacalando, Jr. noted that this being the first time for DOJ to organize an in-country intelligence workshop, more advanced training sessions will be conducted in the near future with collaboration by international partners such as INTERPOL. He further pointed out the importance of enhancing critical linkages among law enforcement agencies of the National Government through cooperative sharing of information and expertise.
