FIA's inception a boon for Botswana

| Tuesday September 21, 2010 00:00

The importance of this organ can never be underestimated. We think that working with law enforcement and oversight agencies, FIA should be able to discharge its mandate and play a meaningful role in the development of the country, more specifically preventing financial crimes.

Cooperation with such organisations as the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Intelligence and Security will help in the fight against financial crimes.

In many Third World countries like ours, the worst blight on development is not violent robberies but white-collar crime committed by those with the expertise to use modern systems to evade detection.  FIA should be equipped with all necessary resources from legislative, human and technical ability to be able to discharge its mandate.

We know for example that the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) has been inundated with various challenges among them lack of cooperation from institutions in the financial sphere.  Government's resolve in establishing the agency should be noted, having earlier in the year suspended its introduction due to budgetary constraints.

The FIA's establishment is an indication of the domestic economy's maturity, fitting well with other progressive legislation such as the Competitions Act, Financial Reporting Act and amendments to the Accountants Act.

The incorporation of expertise from the US Department of Treasury into FIA's operationalisation speaks volumes about Botswana's determination to stamp out financial crime.  The US expert at FIA, Jim Day, is an experienced specialist in the field of financial intelligence and will prove invaluable service to his Finance Ministry, DCEC and police.

The FIA is an essential institution for any developing economy, as it consolidates other structures that together ensure the stability of the financial and banking sectors and the economy in general.

Global audits such as the annual Doing Business Report indicate that investors take a dim view of economies that do not have such agencies because this has ramifications on the security of investment.  In this regard, it is essential that government activates the remaining sections of the FIA Act and provide the agency with sufficient financial allocation in next year's budget.

                                                                           Today's thought

'White-collar crime convictions are deterrents, I've seen a lot of that. Imprisoning heads of state is a deterrent, too. It doesn't happen very often.'

                                                                  - Arlen Specter