A representative of the European Union (EU) in Angola on Monday highlighted the cooperation with the Angolan government in the fight against corruption, which in the last five years has enabled staff to start criminal investigations, arrests and freezing of assets.
The fight against corruption is one of the main axes of the EU’s cooperation with Luanda, under which several initiatives, financed by the European Development Fund, have already been implemented, empowering national services in institution-building actions.
Paulo Simões was speaking today on behalf of the EU Ambassador in Angola, Jeannette Seppen, at a seminar organised by the Angolan Catholic University and the United Nations, as part of the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day.
He stressed that the EU, in partnership with the United Nations and other international institutions, made this commitment to join efforts with the Angolan authorities, to jointly design a framework of initiatives to strengthen coordinated and sustainable cooperation and to participate in the fight against this scourge.
Paulo Simões highlighted the fact that Angola, in recent years, according to Transparency International, has gone from 163, in 2015, to 136, in 2021, among 180 countries, thus rising 27 places in the ranking.
“It is an important improvement and Angola’s cooperation with the EU in the area of justice and law was fundamental to achieving this result, benefiting from closer cooperation and the strengthening of this strategic partnership,” he said.
As part of this project, Simões said, legislative harmonisation in the areas of corruption, money laundering, drug trafficking, witness protection, loss of property and asset recovery had been drawn up and approved by the appropriate bodies.
According to the EU representative, workshops and practical courses have been given in all areas and all institutions involved, namely the Ministry of Economy and Planning, National Bank of Angola, Presidency of the Republic, Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, Attorney General’s Office, Financial Intelligence Unit, Ministry of the Interior, Criminal Investigation Service, Supreme Court, among others.
“These capacity building initiatives, both human and institutional, were crucial to provide the basic knowledge to the relevant institutions, to begin criminal investigations, to start the first cases, to make arrests and to freeze the first assets that were the product of corruption and money laundering in Angola,” he said.
Paulo Simões also highlighted the creation, with the support of experts hired within the framework of European cooperation, of two new services under the Attorney General’s Office, namely the National Anti-Corruption Service and the National Asset Recovery Service.
Lusa
