Address by Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan: High Level Conference on Illicit Financial Flows: Inter-Agency Cooperation and Good Tax Governance in Africa Organised In Cooperation with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
Introduction
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to all of you who have travelled from all corners of our continent and thank you for the invitation to address this High Level Conference on Illicit Financial Flows and Good Tax Governance.
Tax crimes, money laundering and illicit flows are part of a complex phenomenon which is undermining good governance, ethical politics, government and civil society programs intended to promote inclusive growth, reduce inequality and improve the standard of living of the poor and lower middle classes on this continent and elsewhere in the world.
I am pleased that you are looking at this matter from an African continental perspective, because our continent is one where illicit flows from and between African countries pose a significant threat to the developmental agendas of our countries. Indeed, in recognition of the matter, the African Union prioritised the need to identify, stop and eliminate these flows out of Africa, giving effect to the sterling work done by the Mbeki High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa.
This project recognises the link between tax crimes and the proceeds gained from all manner of criminal activities – organised crime, money laundering and corruption being amongst them. Good tax governance and strong cooperation between law enforcement agencies and tax authorities are essential elements in effectively countering corruption, bribery, and illicit flows.
But this requires society to nurture and sustain strong, capable and independent institutions led and operated by public officials who are ethical, public-service oriented and allowed to act without fear or favour against these crimes and those committing these crimes.
The program that you are initiating must ensure that, both in Africa and outside of Africa, in the public but also in the private sector, there is an unimpeachable effort to build ethical, resilient institutions and officials whose integrity is beyond question. A task, I admit, easier to articulate and talk about but difficult to implement.
Nonetheless, we can never relent in our efforts, we must all ensure that the right things are done whatever the evil and extractive forces in the private and public domain might be doing in order to sabotage genuine people-oriented democracies and just and fair development across the world.
Background
The danger of illicit flows and money laundering is not new to South Africa. It was in fact identified as a priority integral to a tranche of laws which were passed by Parliament almost immediately after the birth of our democracy and was seen as critical.
These laws were to enable our integration into the world economy and to ensure that the integrity of the South African financial system was protected from being abused for criminal objectives.
The first administration of President Mandela and the first Minister of Justice of the democratic South Africa, the late Dullah Omar, recognised that illicit flows and money laundering pose a “danger that should be taken very seriously by all countries” and failure by countries “to take action against it face not only massive potential financial losses, but a terrible threat to the entire fabric of society.” Read more [PDF]
