Mozambican Administrative Tribunal audits less than 50% of State Budget – CIP

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Mozambican Administrative Tribunal audits less than 50% of State Budget – CIP

1:58 CAT | 23 Mar 2018

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File photo / "Auditing by the TA would clearly have a preventive effect on the mismanagement of public funds," the analysis says.

The Public Integrity Centre (CIP), a Mozambican civil society organisation, announced yesterday that, by its estimates, the country’s Administrative Tribunal (TA) audits less than half of the State Budget (OE), leaving the rest of the public resources unaudited.

In an analysis of the performance of TA, the CIP states that 329 audits were performed in 2017, representing coverage of 48.4 percent of the total State Budget.

In 2016, TA conducted 188 audits, corresponding to 42.56 percent of the State Budget, the study said.

It remains to be seen “how the remaining funds not audited by TA are being managed, bearing in mind that the GCCC has repeatedly reported cases of misappropriation of public funds,” the analysis reads.

The CIP points out that in 2017 the Central Anti-Corruption Office (GCCC) indicated that the Mozambican state recovered only 17 million meticais (EUR 221,000) from 610 million meticais (EUR 7.9 million) that it lost to corruption.

The CIP also notes that TA has evoked insufficient human, material and financial resources, and that the situation has been exacerbated by delays in the disbursement of funds by international partners.

“Auditing by the TA would clearly have a preventive effect on the mismanagement of public funds,” the analysis says.

The CIP notes that, in 2017, the number of civil servants sanctioned for mismanagement of funds by TA was 397, compared to 277 in the previous year.

The situation “implies, at the level of TA, the application of administrative penalties of restitution and fines”, the body adds.

Source: Lusa