"Whenever such situations occur, at the level of the BNA, the mechanisms are fine-tuned. The mechanisms that exist are always fallible, that is, when these situations arise what we have to do is look at our adjustments and see where we can tighten more and that's done," said the director of the Financial Conduct department at the BNA, Osvaldo dos Santos, when questioned by Lusa.
According to the official, supervision, "contrary to popular belief", is carried out "by sampling, as even in the most developed countries the central bank is not able to be aware of, look at all the operations that are carried out in a given financial institution".
Operations "are in the millions". "During a month a financial institution carries out millions of operations and it is not possible to look at one by one of these operations, and at the level of supervision what is done is to take samples", which are collected according to specific requirements or indicators, he added.
"Many operations may not fall into this sample, that is, they are not seen in concrete, but depending on the samples that are collected, the BNA is able to understand the level of compliance with the rules", explained Osvaldo dos Santos.
Angolan Major Pedro Lussati, linked to the Security House of the President of the Republic, has been detained since last June, after being found in possession of millions of dollars, euros and kwanzas stored in suitcases, crates and vehicles.
According to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), various movable and immovable property of the military officer of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) indicted for the crimes of embezzlement, retention of currency and criminal association were also seized.
The arrest of the oldest, under "Operation Crab", raised criticism and fears at the level of civil society and other sectors about the "reliability" of the money laundering prevention system, since part of the values in kwanzas will have been raised in a commercial bank whose name was not revealed.
Osvaldo dos Santos, who spoke about the concepts of the system for the prevention of money laundering and the financing of terrorism, during a seminar aimed at journalists, also admitted the existence of "complexities of samples" in the field of supervision of which the Lussati case is demonstrative .
"Perhaps an individual who does not change his salary for a certain period of time has to be a cause for concern, look at what the indicators of this specific case are and fine-tune the sampling system for inspection actions", maintained the head of the central bank .
The training seminar, promoted by the BNA, brought together several journalists at the institution's headquarters, in Luanda.
