14 Aug 2019

Botswana has experienced an upsurge in land and property related corruption over the last five years,  says Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) director general Brigadier Joseph Mathambo.

He told participants of the Botswana land symposium held in Gaborone this week that several such cases, some involving land authorities, had been reported to the DCEC, .

Brigadier Mathambo said Batswana were disenfranchised by corrupt individuals who used the real estate market to launder money from the proceeds of crime adding that such activities diminished the stature of the country in the eyes of the international community.

He said due to the  rise in property related money laundering cases, DCEC had established the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) to trace and quickly seize property gained from proceeds of crime in order to ensure criminals did not benefit from it.

Since the establishment of the unit, he said, government had seized several such assets which had been generated through proceeds of crime and vowed that DCEC would continue to ensure that beneficiaries of proceeds of crime were prosecuted.

He urged Batswana to be vigilant in land transactions in order to fend off unscrupulous criminals who wanted to obtain property through fraudulent means often leading to loss of both money and property as well as to desist from selling land for cash which might result in putting land into the hands of unknown people who used the property in illicit activities thereby disrupting the social security that government provided to citizens by allocating such land.

Another speaker, Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) chief executive officer Dr Abraham Sethibe said criminals should be denied benefits from the proceeds of crime.

He said the property market in Botswana was very attractive for money laundering because “land is a commodity that tends to appreciate in value”.

Dr Sethibe noted that the process of transacting land in Botswana was very simple and gave criminals a chance to launder money which put the country at risk of becoming a money laundering hub.

He said a multiplicity of illegal acts which included manipulating the value of property for resale at inflated prices and the use of third party buyers to conceal real beneficiaries were some of the ways in which money could be laundered in the real estate market.

“Batswana need to be wary of the kinds of people they make transactions with in order to ensure that they do not involve themselves in unlawful transactions,” he said.

Dr Sethibe expressed appreciation for the passing recently of the Declaration of  Assets and Liabilities Bill by Parliament explaining that it complemented the FIA Act which facilitated  reportage of suspicious cash transactions.

He urged Batswana to adhere to UN resolutions dealing with corruption and money laundering to ensure that “the country does not become at risk with the international community”.

Dr Sethibe recalled that 2017 and 2018 assessments found Botswana lacking on laws and technical aspects of legislation relating to corruption and money laundering.

The country, he noted, had committed to complying with international financial systems by 2020. BOPA