An expert panel has recommended an overhaul of the financial framework to strengthen intelligence gathering and effective coordination among government intelligence organisations.

The committee, headed by SS Khan, former member, Central Board of Direct Taxes , has suggested that in view of the growing complexity and sophistication of economic offences, collaboration across the spectrum of the agencies engaged in enforcement of economic laws ought to be the central tenet of government's strategy for combating serious economic offences and organised tax evasion.

In its report submitted to finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday , the panel has recommended setting-up a collaborative "hub and spoke" structure of partnerships between the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) and enforcement or regulatory agencies at central and state levels.

The CEIB should function as the nodal agency at its centre maintaining comprehensive national database of specified types of economic offences investigated by the agencies and other agencies will share information with the CEIB, which, in turn, will be able to provide back-end support, linkages and insights harnessing the power of database and data analytics to the agencies, and a holistic view of these activities to the government.

The committee has also recommended a series of steps to empower and modernize the CEIB and equip it with IT enabled tools to effectively perform its role in the changing environment. The central government had appointed the panel in March 2011 to review the role, functioning and structure of the CEIB and to recommend steps to streamline and strengthen financial intelligence gathering and its dissemination for effective coordination amongst the intelligence organisations of the government .