Maputo, 12 Jun (AIM) –There is no evidence that any NGOs operating in Mozambique are involved in financing the Islamist terrorism that has been plaguing some regions of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, according to a report on the “Risk of Terrorist Financing in Not-for-Profit Organizations”.
This document, unveiled on Wednesday in Maputo, was written by a coordination group consisting of 12 government representatives and 12 NGO representatives, and aimed at identifying the Not-for-Profit Organizations that may be at risk of financing terrorism in the country.
But it could find no evidence that NGOs in Mozambique are used to finance terrorism or money laundering.
The study notes that the Mozambique’s Financial Intelligence Office (GIFiM), a body under the Ministry of Economy and Finance, “has reported 14 Suspicious Transaction Notices and one Suspicious Activity Notice, relating to Not-for-Profit Organizations. These account for 0.0008 per cent and 0.0789 per cent respectively of the total number of notices issued over the last five years.”
The same document, however, says that there are three suspicious cases, of which two are at the investigation stage.
“At this stage, in the cases reported at the date of this assessment, there could be sufficient evidence of terrorist financing, a mere violation of prudential rules, a tax offence or, in the end, nothing at all”, says the report.
Reacting to the report, Paula Monjane, executive director of the Civil Society Learning and Capacity Building Centre (CESC), said that the suspected cases are not true until proven otherwise.
“There is no evidence that any organization is being used to finance terrorism. I repeat: there is no evidence. We are waiting for the investigations to be finalized, since the report itself concluded that there is no evidence”, she said.
According to Monjane, “we’re not saying that one day there can’t be a case of an organization involved, just as there can be cases of individuals. What we are saying is that the report concluded that there is no evidence. There are three cases under investigation, but we don’t know why they haven’t been finalized yet.”
Monjane believes that there is no reason for the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to discuss and approve the Not-for-Profit Organizations Bill, deposited by the government in September 2022, since there was never any no evidence that NGOs are involved in terrorism financing.
In 2022, Mozambique was placed on the Grey List of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for an observation period of two years (2022-2024) by the International Cooperation and Review Group (ICRG), an entity that brings together experts who monitor the progress of countries in matters related to money laundering and terrorist financing. Within this process, Mozambique is required to report within an established plan.
For his part, Luís Cezerilo, the National Coordinator of the Executive Committee for the Coordination of Policies to Prevent and Combat Money Laundering and Combat Terrorism, the measure on mentoring the institutions aims at strengthening them.
“We’re going to get away from the speculation that not-for-profit institutions finance terrorism. With the permanent sector risk assessments, the institutions will be able to provide concrete information”, he said.
Cezerilo also said that Mozambique, by 19 July, must achieve three immediate results that are crucial to the country’s removal from the FATF Grey list.
“The government has already achieved six immediate results out of the 11 needed. But the country has to achieve three immediate results, crucial to the country’s removal from the list. They include work that must be done in non-financial institutions, namely: GIFiM, Mozambique’s National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Court”, he explained.
The country, he said, faces three scenarios.
“If we resolve these questions by 19 July, the country comes off the grey list. Secondly, if it hasn’t been resolved, the FATF will assess the government’s level of commitment in applying the process, and if it comes to the conclusion that the commitment is positive, it will say it’s fine and take the country off the list after a certain period. The third, which is an unlikely scenario, is the application of counter-measures, such as the blocking of credit cards and the verification of compliance of all commercial transactions with our state”, he said.
As of February 2024, there were 21 countries on the grey list. In addition to Mozambique, they included four other southern African countries (South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo).
Countries on the grey list have agreed to increased monitoring, and to solving any strategic deficiencies in their regimes to counter money-laundering and financing of terrorism.
Countries that fail to address these problems might be transferred to the black list. Countries on the black list will be subject to enhanced due diligence, and other countries could be called to take measures against them to protect the international financial system. Currently the only countries on the black list are North Korea, Iran and Myanmar.
(AIM)
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