"This is a chronicle of a decision that was already expected. Only the Angolan Government, for political reasons, never admitted this, but it was already expected and gained this expectation when a report was released in which a series of non-conformities were detected", highlighted Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, journalist and professor at the Catholic University of Angola.
According to the journalist, "there were recommendations that were not being followed and the legislation that exists in many cases is not applied."
The announcement of Angola's inclusion in the "grey list" was made by the president of the FATF, Elisa de Anda Madrazo, at the end of a plenary meeting in which she highlighted that "the process of inclusion in that list is not a punitive measure".
"Rather, it is about guiding countries towards improvement. All of these countries worked actively with their respective regional bodies and the FATF to develop an action plan," she added.
For Carlos Rosado de Carvalho, the FATF's decision "was perfectly expected, because the report from a year ago was very bad for Angola".
"The Government still tried to do some things like this at the last minute, but there are fundamentally two things here: recommendations that are not fully complied with in the national legal system."
"That's one of the things, but, well, it's legislation that sooner or later can be done. But then another big problem is that the legislation isn't applied and in particular, we eventually have a lot of legislation against money laundering. capital, but then no one is arrested", he added.
"There is corruption, but then no one is arrested. 'Enforcement' (law enforcement) does not happen", he stressed.
FATF explains on its e-portal that when it places a jurisdiction under enhanced monitoring, it means that the country has committed to quickly addressing identified strategic deficiencies within agreed timeframes and is subject to enhanced monitoring.
On July 22, 2022, the Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury, Ottoniel dos Santos, said in Luanda that the result of the FATF assessment would be decisive for the image of Angola and the financial system, in particular.
