ARINSA Breaking New Ground in Madagascar
Antananarivo, Madagascar. In the
first ever visit to Madagascar, SAMIFIN (Madagascar Financial
Investigation Unit) hosted members from the ARINSA Secretariat for meetings and
discussions designed to forge new partnerships between ARINSA and Madagascar.
Madagascar is one of the 17 member countries of East and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG). Madagascar is also one of the 4 countries in Southern Africa that has not yet joined ARINSA including Angola, DRC and Mozambique. The country has however received previous training from ARINSA and has also attended the Annual General Meeting held in Pretoria in June 2016. Madagascar has been an Observer Member since 2014 and the purpose of the visit was to strengthen the political will and convince the government ministries concerned that joining the network indeed presented the country with invaluable benefits.
Over the course of 3 days in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, the ARINSA delegates participated in a number of high-profile meetings and discussions, including with: the Secretary General in the President's office, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Finance, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Justice, the Committee on Safeguarding Integrity, SAMIFIN and a Representative in the Embassy of France in Madagascar.
The ARINSA delegation had the opportunity to meet and discuss with representatives why it was beneficial for Madagascar to form part of the only asset recovery network in Southern Africa. Topics of discussion throughout the visit included the need to build strong relationships and partnerships to counter the proceeds of crime and asset recovery, regional challenges and successes, the ARINSA agenda and the future of the network, and the current proceeds of crime and assets recovery landscape in the region.
Madagascar has the political will to join ARINSA as retorted by the Adviser to the Minister of Finance and Internal Audit as well as Representative to the East and Southern African Anti-Money Laundering Group (ESAAMLG), Mr Faly. "We need laws to do asset recovery, and we need to demonstrate that this has been used somewhere else and it can work here. We need ARINSA to help us. We are drafting a new bill on asset recovery and proceeds of crime and we need to pass it,” he said. He continued to say that as a senior official in the Ministry of Finance he was going to prioritise this and work with the other ministries to make sure Madagascar becomes a member of ARINSA as soon as possible.