By: Kelvin Chiringa
Local churches are investing massively in property development outside the country, mainly in the Caribbean, much to the alarm of the Financial Intelligence Centre, which has raised red flags over possible illicit financial flows.
According to intelligence, this money is taken out of what church followers are giving to Caesar in the form of tithes and offerings.
More often than not, millions have been invested outside Namibia with little accountability and transparency to dozens of church followers that continue to fork out thousands of dollars in tithes.
This was disclosed by the Bank of Namibia and the FIC last week Friday.
The two entities met with the official opposition president, McHenry Venaani and his entourage consisting of shadow minister for finance, Nico Smit and the party chief whip, Vipua Muharukua.
The purpose of the visit is centred on discussions on matters relating to property rights, internal and external monetary policies, and maintaining a steady Gross Domestic Product growth.
Bank of Namibia Governor Johannes Gawaxab had disclosed that the opening of the lid into investments by the churches outside the country caused an outcry and discomfort for some when the bank knocked on their doors.
“Illegal flows of money, some churches in Namibia are building houses in the Caribbean. So, when she (FIC director) told me this, and we started going through the list of all the churches, it was a big outcry to get a handle on these illegal flows.
“It’s not something that we have started to set. We are a secular state. But when churches begin building houses in the Caribbean, we only think it’s mining companies. These flows that you are talking about are serious staff.
“Last year, we started this whole project where we went out, and we want to talk about this a little bit. What did we do, and what type of education did we give to the churches? And it was a big, big discomfort to some of the churches but the very serious stuff,” he said.
The FIC director, Leonie Dunn, also said that tithes and offerings being taken from the congregation were “leaving the country and paying for somebody’s wealth in other countries.
In a revelation that may alarm some churchgoers, Dunn said they found that about 55% of the churches, both traditional and new age, do not keep proper books of accounts.
She said there is no accounting being done back to the congregation, which has to pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar in each sermon they attend.
“We have explained to all the churches the problem that we see. We have cases that we could show them how the funds flow to other countries. We could also, with the Financial Intelligence Units of those countries, advise the churches as to what happened with the money,” she said.
The FIC is about to embark on yet another national roadshow to understand who has not done what they promised they would do as far as strict accounting is concerned.
“So, all the churches are currently registered and regulated by the Financial Intelligence Centre. What we are also guiding them on is how to make risk assessments to properly document the risks that they are exposed to and make sure that the risks are effectively managed,” said the FIC boss.
She said that the high-risk churches are not the traditional ones but the mushrooming new age churches.
The Lutheran Church continues to ship money back to Germany, but this is because of agreements between the two countries, yet for the rest of the other churches, the FIC said they had closed the taps of illicit financial flows.
Venaani has also cautioned that a lot of the monies funding terrorism was flowing through the church institutions.
“If you want to bring millions of dollars in the country, the Muslim network is the easiest way. So, you are also having your eyes there? These things could be linked. What I know is that it could be linked to terrorism. There is a lot of terrorist money now flowing through religious churches,” he said.
In the Meantime, the FIC has said that there are no illicit financial flows from Namibia to Mozambique to fund the ongoing Jihad.
The FIC specifically focused on underground banking channels, which includes the Chinese banking system.
