Luanda – Angola has recovered an amount equivalent to USD 6.7 billion in the last three years, the minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz, has said.
Francisco Queiroz underlined that the amount was recovered by the National Service for the Recovery of Assets of the Attorney General’s Office, as part of fight against corruption.
These are movable assets and real estates, constituted with public funds or criminal benefits.
They include factories, supermarkets, buildings, residential, hotels, shareholdings in financial institutions and in various profitable companies.
Speaking at the regional workshop on the accelerated follow-up of the implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, in Cape Town (South Africa), the official said that in the same period the country recovered USD 5.3 billion in cash and goods.
Of this amount, he went on, USD 2.7 billion and USD 2.6 billion were in movable assets and real estates such as factories, buildings and social participations, satellite cites in the country.
According to the minister, USD 6.1 billion in cash and goods, namely in Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore, Bermuda, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Monaco among other countries.
“The total number of seizures and recoveries in the country and abroad amounts to USD 11. 4 billion”, stated the Minister of Justice and Human Rights.
In terms of law enforcement, he noted that the Attorney General’s Office has initiated a systematic action against agents who indicate the practice of crimes of corruption, money laundering, embezzlement and other crimes against the Angolan State’s assets.
He added that a total of 715 criminal proceedings are underway on embezzlement, active and passive corruption, money laundering, undue receipt of advantages, economic participation in business, tax fraud and other types of economic and financial crimes.
Francisco Queiroz drew the attention of those present to the need to change the situation in relation to the position of the southern region of Africa in the indices of perception of corruption.
“The results obtained by Transparency International in 2021, in relation to the Corruption Perceptions Index, which place the Sub-Saharan Africa Region among the region with the lowest score, obtaining an average of 33 points on a scale from 0 to 100, is worrying,” he noted.
The Angolan official defended the urgency of reversing this situation and called for the rigorous implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in the countries of the region.
In her speech, the representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Brigitte Strobel-Shaw, presented brief notes on the organisation’s new initiatives.
She focused mainly on the issue of Asset Recovery and the need for ratification by part of some member countries to the Regional Platform for Quick Access Implementation, in order to accelerate the effective implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
On the sidelines of the conference, the Angolan delegation held a meeting with UNODC, during which issues related to the measures adopted by Angola in the scope of combat corruption, asset recovery and widespread loss of property were discussed.
UNODC also intends to support Angola in the field of species protection, forest resources as well as in the fight against illicit trafficking in timber.
The regional workshop, whose closing is scheduled for Thursday (10), is under the theme “Transformation of society through anti-corruption innovation in public procurement and protection of whistleblowers”.
Source: Angola Press News Agency