The deputy director of the Financial Investigation Unit (UIF), António Freire dos Santos, reaffirmed lsat week that Angola remains committed to strengthening the national anti-money laundering system, aiming for the best international practices.
According to the deputy director, who was speaking to the journalists on the sidelines of a workshop on “Money laundering risks related to designated non-financial businesses and other professions”, legislative strategies are being implemented to prevent and combat money laundering.
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As well as this, he pointed out, a database and a website are being created where the institutions working with the UIF can share all kinds of information and receive complaints.
According to the official, the UIF is the facilitator that, based on the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force against Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (FATF), has been working to reduce the tendency to commit financial crimes, with a view to improving the country’s image in the national and international financial system.
He said that the set of recommendations noted by the FATF experts are being complied with, essentially in terms of updating legislation, defining the major challenges for preventing and combating money laundering, as well as training staff to intervene in a specialised way.
“Angola has until July to comply with the recommendations. We are working and we have enough time. The steps taken so far are quite significant,” he emphasised.
He added that a national plan had been drawn up, in which all the institutions participated with their contributions, and that there was already a strategic plan to prevent and combat money laundering in the country.
“At the moment, we don’t have the sign of being on the grey list. We are doing our best to remedy the shortcomings that have been identified. We’ll wait for the assessors to define, according to the fulfilment of the set of actions established, the state of development that the country has had,” he said.
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He also said that in July Angola would once again provide information to answer to what extent it had to fulfil the set of shortcomings identified in the report assessing the risk of money laundering, terrorist financing and their underlying crimes.
In turn, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) advisor in Angola, Manuela Carneiro, considered money laundering to be a dynamic challenge that is constantly evolving as criminals find new spaces and methods to exploit.
Deputy director also said that, the property sector, law firms, precious metals dealers, insurance companies and countless other non-financial sectors are exposed to risk and can be used for illicit activities without their knowledge or consent.
The workshop on “Risk of money laundering related to designated non-financial businesses and other professions”, promoted by the UIF and the United Nations Organisation on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Angola, is part of the Project to Support the Strengthening of the Asset Forfeiture System in Angola (PRO.REACT), funded by the European Union (EU).
The aim of the project is to develop an effective system for combating illicit financial flows, according to an ONUDC press release to which ANGOP had access.
Switzerland is one of the countries in the world that in recent years has distinguished itself in the fight against money laundering.
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Therefore, with the support of the Swiss Embassy in Angola, three experts from the “Institut de Lutte Contre la Criminalité Economique” (Neuchâtel, Switzerland) with experience in these matters will share their knowledge and success stories with Angola.
