Sept review could clear EU blacklisting
Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday September 3, 2020 15:30
The review could clear the way from Botswana’s removal from the European Union’s dirty money blacklist. Officials appearing before the Public Accounts Committee this week said Botswana submitted its report to the FATF in April but reviewers could not come due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The EU, which lists countries according to the FATF reports, subsequently blacklisted Botswana. FATF, a global anti-money laundering organisation founded by the world's richest countries in the aftermath of the US terror attacks in 2001, will conduct the review this month.
“We had a timeline with FATF and except for Covid, we had hoped that by December, we would have cleared the slate, so that they review us,” Finance Ministry permanent secretary, Wilfred Mandlebe told the Parliamentary Accounts Committee on Monday.
“However, due to Covid-19, there has been a delay. We submitted our report in April and they were supposed to come assess us also in April.
“They did not because of Covid and now we are expecting that in September.”