Zim loses billions to laundering
ZIMBABWE has reportedly lost billions through tax evaders and money laundering as the country works on further improving its money laundering risk assessment, a senior Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe official has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of an Anti-money laundering and financial crime conference that was held in Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa last week, RBZ deputy director in the financial intelligence unit, Mr Oliver Chiperesa said while the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had recently listed Zimbabwe in the “grey list” in terms of countries with a high risk of money laundering, the country was making great strides in ensuring that they adhere to laid down standards and improve their status.
The grey list of countries is made up of states that have strategic deficiencies but have committed to an action plan to address those deficiencies.
The list also includes Bahamas, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Iceland, Mongolia, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago and Yemen while Ethiopia, Tunisia and Sri Lanka were removed from the list, having addressed all items as per agreed action plan.
Mr Chiperesa revealed that various State departments were working as a unit to combat tax evasion which has seen the country recovering billions of dollars in revenue.
“The country’s Anti-Money Laundering law, the Money Laundering & Proceeds of Crime Act, was amended in 2018, to make embed the Risk Based Assessment standards into law. Under the law: at national level, the country is required to undertake Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing national risk assessments, share the results with stakeholders, keep such risk assessments updated, and ensure national policies are reflective of the risks.
“At institutional level, financial institutions are required to identify, assess and understand their Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and to implement measures commensurate with the risks. You will also realise that over the years we have managed to recover billions of dollars lost through tax evaders and we continue to make significant strides in this regard,” said Mr Chiperesa.
He revealed that the country’s commitment to addressing the problem of tax evaders was further buttressed with the issuance of a directive- in
March 2016 — directing financial institutions to identify, assess and understand their Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing risks and to implement commensurate riskbased mitigating measures.
Questioned on the overall figure that the country was losing to tax evaders the deputy director said this would need a co-ordinated approach with the relevant stakeholders, inclusive of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) and RBZ to come up with a wholesome figure.
The two-day long anti-money laundering and financial crime conference saw a number of bankers from around the world converging on South Africa to deliberate on new trends of money laundering and how these could be curbed within the banking network.