Eliseu Vunge, who was speaking to the Lusa agency about Angola's fears of returning to the gray list of the International Financial Action Group (FATF), which it left in 2018, said that it is necessary to "follow strictly the issue of exposure of politically exposed persons in the financial system", for example, as well as eliminating the lack of security, from the point of view of transactions.
"I think that the main focus continues to be the transparency of our financial system, that's where we fall short, in the banks' reports, in fulfilling the obligations to report to the National Bank of Angola (BNA), which is responsible for sending international entities", said the economist.
According to the economist, the measures are more focused on the issue of transparency, but as the rules are adjusted, "new ways of distracting or escaping the rules" also appear.
"There are news that are not very good at the moment, regarding some banks, the 'compliance', when our financial system, in fact, is very dominated by politically exposed people", she pointed out.
In 2018, continued the economist, the rules felt "a little tighter".
"What we are seeing is that we are having some setbacks from the point of view of compliance, it is not the law, it is compliance with the rules, since laws have already been approved, even on money laundering, which would facilitate our normal environment of business, in the most concrete case the financial system", he stressed.
For the economist, what is lacking is "continuity of compliance with the rules", noting that the country has legislation to facilitate the process.
"If we don't comply strictly, we may again suffer the heavy hand and enter that list", he opined, reiterating that "the problem is the action. There is a lack of rigor, not only in control, but from the point of view of compliance by the banks themselves, of the BNA notices and what are the international reporting rules".
Eliseu Vunge highlighted that the environment in Angola is "accompanied by past situations".
"Despite the effort to remove politically exposed people, many of them still exist and can always exert some influence, not directly, but indirectly", stressed the economist, noting that in recent times, with the governance of the Angolan President, João Lourenço, there has been this effort, "in which the autonomy of the BNA came to try to bring this transparency".
"But we cannot forget that even if there are laws, human action prevails", calling for greater responsibility on the part of the fiscal body, in this case the Financial Information Unit, the BNA and other bodies.
According to the economist, if Angola returns to the gray list, it will have the same consequences as in the past, namely difficulty in accessing international markets.
A report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), quoted by the newspaper Expansão, advises Angola to resolve as quickly as possible the shortcomings found by the FATF in the scope of the inspection of the country, to avoid returning to the gray list.
The IMF in its report highlights the improvements made by Angola in recent years, but that there is still much to be done.
The Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury of Angola, Ottoniel dos Santos, referring to the matter at a forum on banking last year, was quite confident, stating that there is no reason today to foresee a setback in relation to the verified advances.
On Tuesday, a BNA official announced that Angola already has a plan to address deficiencies identified in the fight against money laundering and remain off the gray list of FATF countries, which includes changes to the law and revision of banking regulations.
Pedro Castro e Silva added that technicians from the Angolan regulator are already in Arusha, Tanzania, for the meeting of the Eastern and Southern African Money Laundering Combat Group (ESAAMLG), which will discuss starting next week Angola's assessment report.
The intergovernmental body of the group of countries in Southern and East Africa aims to develop and promote policies to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
It consists of 17 countries, Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Seychelles, Swaziland, Kenya, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Mauritius and Zimbabwe.
"The FATF will make a decision on Angola according to the content of the report: whether it will remain as it is, without being part of any list or whether it will have reinforced monitoring. If the FATF decides that reinforced monitoring is necessary, the country has one year to resolve deficiencies that were identified", highlighted the BNA administrator.
However, he underlined, decisions on whether or not to join the gray list of countries with less cooperative tax regimes in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing do not take place immediately, so a possible decision would only take effect in 2024.
"Aware of this, the executive approved a national strategy to combat money laundering from which action plans must now emanate by all entities evaluated by FATF and that includes entities of the financial system", he said.
