Eduarda Rodrigues, who was speaking at the seventh edition of Café Cipra on the "Fighting Corruption and Recovery of Assets", said that these agreements are necessary in view of the resistance that some countries have made to the return of goods and money.
In these situations, Eduarda Rodrigues said, the State has so far adopted the policy of keeping the money in those countries, opening accounts in local banks and moving it from there.
"We recovered [money], for example, in the United Kingdom, we will leave the money there. The Angolan State opens a bank account in the United Kingdom, the money is transferred to that State account in the United Kingdom and from there the State, via the internet 'banking' and other ways can move money very well. In other words, this is what we are trying to do to also garner the support of these countries within the scope of this process, which is extremely difficult and complex", she explained.
According to Eduarda Rodrigues, it is necessary for Angola to find "more tenuous mechanisms" so as not to harm itself or other countries.
"We are talking about a lot of money, more than a billion dollars in an account referring to an accused, for example. In a commercial bank, it can cause a breach in that country's own financial system and the country itself would have reservations about that", she highlighted.
The director of the National Asset Recovery Service also emphasized the fact that countries "always" raise the problem of money laundering.
"That is, the money left here within the scope of a specific crime, but then we have the proceeding crime, that of money laundering, because they acquired real estate abroad, shareholdings in companies, that is, they laundered this money and then they also open a criminal case there", she specified.
In this sense, Eduarda Rodrigues defended that "there has to be a negotiation" with some countries, for the establishment of "agreements to share goods".
"We really have to share goods, because otherwise we will not be able to bring these values to Angola", said the official, stressing that countries "are more motivated to work" with Angola when they hear that the country "will think about sharing goods".
"Otherwise they will close themselves down, the money is really out there. The evidence is here, the money is there, they cannot accuse money laundering without proving the preceding crime, for example, embezzlement here in Angola, and hence the need, with some strategic countries, for the Angolan State to have to make an agreement on the sharing of goods", she reiterated.
In turn, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz, who also participated in the meeting, said that there is resistance abroad, stressing that the difficulty in repatriating capital is great.
"There are countries that say this could destabilize their country's finances if the money were repatriated, it's also another form of resistance," he said.
Francisco Queiroz underlined that the United Nations, at a conference in which Angola participated in South Africa, promised to help Angola to overcome this type of resistance", he stressed.
The holder of the Justice and Human Rights portfolio said that, in recent years, public managers have been more careful in managing the state treasury, however there has still been some resistance, highlighting the need for a change in mentality.
"For many years, decades, this system of corruption took root in people's thinking and attitudes. Fighting corruption after all this history will always encounter resistance at the mental level and this is fought with education, awareness and also with legal prevention through justice", he said.
The minister said that there are still cases of declared resistance, in which those targeted claim to have "this quality or that", which he described as another "way of resisting".
