28 Nov 2018

Office of the Receiver under the Ministry of Defence Justice and Security is not an investigating agency, but is a messenger of the court.
Addressing the Francistown Full Council meeting on the mandate of his office, the Receiver, Mr Bafi Nlanda explained that his office reports to the court.

“For my office to act, there must be a court order obtained by the prosecution authority (In this case the directorate of Public Prosecution) directing the Office of the Receiver to compensate the victim.
He said the Office of the Receiver works with other departments in the justice sector that include, but are not limited to; the police, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP), Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), and the Financial Intelligence Agency.

Mr Nlanda explained that all ‘these agencies have dedicated money laundering units within themselves since money laundering was discovered as the most serious crimes that can also be used to finance terrorism across the globe’.

He explained to councillors that the Office of the Receiver was responsible for preserving the value of the confiscated property or money in respect of an order made under the act or any written law of Botswana.
Mr Nlanda explained that the aim of the introduction of the act was solely to compensate victims of crime when the court had satisfied itself in accordance with the act that the victim requires compensations.

Mr Nlanda further explained that so far his office had already seized P250 million since inception in 2015, but was till restrained because there was no court order directing it to act on the proceed (s).
He further stated that his office had also received an order to trace a company in Israel, which was involved in a money laundering scam, but could not disclose the amount of money and the company involved.

He also explained to councillors that his office had recovered movable and immovable assets that have been deemed by the courts to be gains or proceeds of crime, saying there were 34 such cases in Francistown and Matshelagabedi in which houses and plots had been deemed as proceeds of crime by the courts.

In addition, Mr Nlanda explained they conduct the valuation of every asset impounded at the time of seizure and that if the suspects involved won the case, they were paid the value of the assets if the property had already been sold.
However, Mr Nlanda explained that the office was ‘doing a wonderful job despite being thin on the ground and the office is manned by only three officers, being the Receiver, Secretary and one ancillary staff member.”

He said it was government’s hope that the Office of the Receiver would spread its wings to other areas such as Francistown, but cautioned that ‘Rome was not built in a day’.
The office of the Receiver was created by the establishment of Proceeds of Instruments and Crime Act (PICA)  which was passed by Parliament in August 2014 to deprive criminals of their illegally gained profits by introducing new forfeiture provisions, which were lacking in the previous legislation.

The Act repealed the Proceeds of Serious Crime Act, which provided only for criminal forfeiture and did not resolve the issue of management of proceeds. ENDS