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Notícias (File photo)
Mozambican Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco has sacked the former head of the Agriculture Development Fund (FDA), Setina Titosse, from the public administration.
Titosse, along with 24 others, is currently on trial, accused of a fraud which siphoned 170 million meticais (about 5.6 million US dollars, at the exchange rate of the time) from the FDA over a four year period.
The disciplinary case against Titosse is independent of the criminal proceedings. So even if the Maputo City Court were to acquit her, or give her a non-custodial sentence, she would be unable to return to work in the Agriculture Ministry, or anywhere else in the Mozambican state.
Prior to her move to the FDA, Titosse had been Maputo Provincial Director of Agriculture and executive director of the Food and Nutritional Security Technical Secretariat.
According to a report in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, Pacheco has also expelled from the public administration all the other accused in the current case who are current or former officials of the FDA – namely Neide Xerinda, Brasilino Salvador, Celeste Ismael and Joaquim Mazive.
Pacheco’s dispatch is dated 5 October, and the sackings were authorised by the Administrative Tribunal on 13 October.
“Mediafax” suggests that Pacheco is anxious to avoid a repeat of the scandal that occurred in the publicly-owned airports company, ADM. Its chairperson Diodino Cambaza was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for corruption in 2010. He was released, on grounds of good behaviour, after serving half his sentence, and was immediately given another job at ADM.
This was possible because neither ADM nor the Transport Ministry launched any disciplinary proceedings against Cambaza. Pacheco seems determined not to make the same mistake.
The trial of Titosse and her alleged accomplices is due to resume on 1 November.
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