Africa-Press – Angola. Angola has recovered, to date, 7.6 billion USD, as part of the process of combating corruption and recovering assets.
The information was provided Friday, in Luanda, by the director of the National Asset Recovery Service, Eduarda Rodrigues, at the opening of the seminar on Asset Confiscation, aimed at superior court judges, organized by the Attorney General’s Office ( PGR) and the United Nations Organization on Drugs and Crime in Angola (ONUDC).
Eduarda Rodrigues referred that the values recovered involve, in addition to money, assets such as shareholdings, real estate and others.
According to the director, part of this money was used in the Investment and Intervention Program in Municipalities (PIIM), in the construction of schools and other infrastructures.
The official also mentioned the first recovery of assets resulting from a judicial sentence, related to the case of the three AAA, initiated in the court of first instance, for which she claimed to have had a lot of international cooperation.
On the other hand, he explained that there are more than 12 billion dollars seized, that is, in the condition of arrests, whose process is ongoing, awaiting a final decision, which is why these should not yet be included in the amounts actually recovered.
In this context, he made it known that several assets were identified and located in the country and abroad, in territories such as Switzerland, Bermuda, Singapore, Luxemburg, Portugal and the United Arab Emirates, but which are still under arrest.
The Deputy Attorney General of the Republic, Inocência Pinto, spoke about the institution’s challenges in the fight against corruption and asset recovery and considered training imperative, at a time when criminal agents have perfected their operating mode.
He defended the need to strengthen the technical capacities of judges in terms of preventing and repressing money laundering and others, in order to overcome some shortcomings in the justice sector.
According to Inocência Pinto, it is the responsibility of adopting measures capable of reversing the situation, and it is important to reinforce joint training at all levels, in order to standardize the understanding of the concept of money laundering and related matters, as well as the alignment of procedures in the investigation of these crimes.
In turn, the President of the Supreme Court, Joel Leonardo, also highlighted the importance of the event, having underlined the permanent international judicial dialogue that is required around the transversality of an issue as topical as it is appealing as the confiscation of assets.
The UNODC coordinator in Angola, Manuela Carneiro, the ambassador of Portugal, Francisco Duarte, and the representative of the European Union in the country, Isabel Emerson, also took part in the opening session, who recognized the work carried out in recent years, by the Angolan Government in the fight against corruption and asset recovery, as well as expressing their continued support in this regard.
On the occasion, the Portuguese diplomat underlined the cooperation between the justice institutions of his country and Angola, which he considers remarkable.
He said that Angola, in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, is one of the countries that has registered the greatest progress in the index of perception of corruption and organization of international transparency and reaffirmed the commitment of his government.
“Angola knows that it can always count on the active participation and commitment of Portugal in this sense”, he said.
Lasting one day, the workshop focuses on matters related to assets and illicit financial flows that are placed in the legal system and in the banking financial system, through money laundering.
The event will analyze, among others, topics such as “the asset recovery process” and “the importance of asset recovery in the fight against corruption”.
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