Madagascar and Mozambique welcomed into ARINSA as members report USD 23 million in seized assets!
ARINSA members were welcomed to the Annual General Meeting by their president Mpho Letsoalo in Gaborone, Botswana, 06 - 7 June 2017.
The annual event brought together 107 (including 45 females) asset forfeiture practitioners from the police, financial intelligence units and prosecuting services agencies from Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to discuss issues of mutual interest and concerns in relation to asset recovery, worldwide.
The Honourable Minister of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale gave the keynote address and remarked as follows:
“The expansion and administrative consolidation of ARINSA is a reflection of its member’s commitment to increase their effectiveness in depriving criminals of their illegal proceeds from criminal activities”.
The theme of the 7th ARINSA AGM was the development of national strategies for the management of seized assets. Mr Molale again remarked:
“The value chain of implementing an effective asset forfeiture regime includes the establishment of an asset management directorate”. He further stated that “Asset management remains critical and an important function of achieving the goal of depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains”.
Presentations were made by the member countries on their asset recovery achievements during the 2016 financial year. Significant achievements that stood out including that:
- US$23m worth of assets were forfeited,
- 419 cases of money laundering currently undergoing investigation,
- 178 vehicles worth over US$2m were seized, and
- US$5,6m worth of gold and other assets such as cattle were seized.
Countries attributed the successes to the continuing assistance from UNODC including Judicial training, regional and national workshops on money laundering and terrorist financing and the mentor placement programme which began in 2015. Countries also benefited from the prosecutor placement programme which is hosted by the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa.
The ARINSA Secretariat presented UNODC’s e-learning opportunities which can be accessed through the ARINSA website (http://arinsa.org), which is mainly used for sharing best practices, case law and cases of significant interest.
Furthermore, the meeting was informed by the steering committee of the admission of Mozambique and Madagascar into the ARINSA network.
The AGM agreed that country assessments should be carried out to determine the status of the asset management legal framework. Further to that more judicial retreats are to be carried out in the region and countries must submit requests for technical assistance to enhance a multi-disciplinary approach in dealing with asset recovery cases.
For more information on the activities and asset recovery success stories, please see the ARINSA 2016 Annual Report.
Other resources related to this AGM were covered in the media and are available on the links below:
Key note address by the Minister:
https://www.facebook.com/Botswana.Government/posts/1346481915434463:0
News:
http://www.dailynews.gov.bw/news-details.php?nid=36481
News:
http://apanews.net/en/news/botswana-hosts-regional-asset-forfeiture-seminar