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Hidden Debts Timeline: from loans’ disclosure to Chang’s arrest
9:41 CAT | 17 Jan 2019
in file CoM
The decision of the South African court over the extradition to either the United States or Mozambique of former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang will mark a new chapter in the public debt crisis.
The United States was the first to request Chang’s extradition while Mozambique did so a couple of days ago.
Presented below is the timeline of events between the disclosure of the ‘hidden debts’ to Chang’s arrest in South Africa.
2016
5th of April – The Wall Street Journal reports that there is an undisclosed $622 million loan that was proposed by Credit Suisse and VTB in 2013, and that the following year, investors were approached to raise the amount borrowed to $900 million.
14th of April – The finance minister, Adriano Maleiane, says there are no hidden loans and that “there was some confusion” about Ematum. He added: “There was some confusion and it ended up putting Mozambique in an unnecessary situation, everything that has the guarantee of the State, is guaranteed, we assume everything that had been assumed by the Government, that is the tranquility that I continue to give to the investors,” he said at the end of a meeting with Christine Lagarde in Washington during the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings.
15th of April – The IMF cancels its planned visit to Mozambique and announces that it has been given hidden loans of more than one billion dollars.
18th of April – Moody’s downgrades Mozambique because of Ematum.
19th of April – IMF cancels payment of the second tranche, worth $155 million, of the total agreement of $282.9 million that had been made at the end of 2015.
19th of April – The Financial Times reports that the Mozambican government has authorized a loan of more than $500 million to a public company.
22nd of April – Lusa reveals that the 2014 debt that Mozambique issued in March to investors in Ematum debt securities is $1.6 billion, more than the figures in the official documents, citing the confidential prospect prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which put the total debt forecast for 2015 at $11.1 billion.
26th of April – The Government acknowledges the existence of an out-of-state debt of US $1.4 billion (1.25 billion euros), justifying security reasons for the country’s strategic infrastructure. Mouzinho Saíde, a spokesman for the Council of Ministers, confirmed to the press the existence of guarantees provided by the Government for loans granted to Proindicus in 2013 amounting to USD 622 million (€ 553 million) and to Mozambique Asset Management, in the following year, of $535 million (476 million euros), which adds a third credit involving the Ministry of the Interior. This is a bilateral loan of $221 million (EUR 196 million) contracted to the Ministry of Interior between 2009 and 2014.
29th of April – Fitch lowers Mozambique’s rating to CCC and says that public debt “deteriorated significantly”.
29th of April – Mozambique’s justice system announces an investigation into the loan taken out by Ematum and debts owed by other state-guaranteed companies and hidden in public accounts, on a day on which Maputo operated at half-gas due to fears of protests on social networks, but were not realized.
03rd of May – The group of donors of the Mozambican State Budget decides to suspend international aid to the country after the disclosure of debts hidden in public accounts.
13th of May – Mozambique’s Economy and Finance Minister Adriano Maleiane apologizes to the country over the fact that the government did not disclose the so-called hidden debts contracted between 2013 and 2014.
24th of May – The rating agency Fitch considers that Mozambique has a high risk of financial default, justifying the decrease of the rating to CC, a level of ‘non-investment’ or ‘junk’.
24th of May – MAM fails to pay the first installment of US $ 178 million, according to O País.
24th of May – IMF Director General Christine Lagarde says the suspension of funding was justified by clear signs of hidden corruption: “When we see a country under an IMF program where there is money from the international community involved, which does not commit to financial disclosure, which is clearly hiding corruption, we have suspended the program. We have done this very recently with Mozambique, “Lagarde told the BBC.
28th of May – The financial rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S & P) downgrades the credit rating from B- to CCC due to the increased risk of default due to the interruption of external financing.
04th of June – The Wall Street Journal announces that the British financial supervisor is investigating Credit Suisse and Russia’s VTB Bank.
09th of June – The Assembly of the Republic (AR) announces that it will form a commission of inquiry.
Hundreds of people marched in Maputo against the political and economic situation, demanding accountability from the perpetrators of hidden debts and an end to the military confrontations between the government and Renamo.
14th of July- The Attorney-General (PGR) says there is a criminal offense in so-called hidden debts.
27th of July – The US Ambassador to Mozambique, Dean Pittman, insists on the need for an independent audit, saying that his country has revised the aid to make sure it is targeted at the Mozambican people.
22nd of August – The former Mozambican Prime Minister Luísa Diogo considers that the previous Government did not make a serious and responsible management of the public debt, but it rejected the hypothesis of malicious action of the political leaders.
10th of October – The IMF considers that it was not deceived by the hidden debt, but rather “the Mozambican people,” emphasizing that the institution can only work with “the data that is provided to it.”
13th of October – The vice-president of the Russian bank, VTB, says he was “cheated” by the government when the debts were not disclosed.
25th of October – The Government officially assumes the financial inability to pay off the next installments of government-owned loans with hidden loans, advocating a restructuring of payments and new IMF financial aid.
04th of November – The PGR selects the consultant, Kroll, for the international debt audit, to be financed by Sweden.
28th of November – Former President Armando Guebuza is heard on the inquiry committee for an hour, leaving without making statements to the press and surrounded by strong security measures.
2017
16th of January – The Ministry of Finance confirms that it will not pay the January provision of $59.7 million for sovereign debt securities maturing in 2023, thereby entering into default.
18th of January – Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S & P) lowers the rating to SD/D, or selective default.
03rd of February – Mozambique officially falls into financial default after the end of the grace period for the payment of $ 60 million of the January installment of the public debt issue made in April.
21st of March – Proindicus fails to pay a $119.2 million repayment from the $622 million loan, causing Mozambique to default again.
05th of April – The PGR sends letters to local banks requesting access to the bank accounts of former President Armando Guebuza.
24th of May – Renamo President says the case of debt is “a betrayal” for which the state should not pay.
24th of June – Kroll’s audit points out the ones responsible for mismanagement and confessed violation of the law, but identifies personalities only as individual A, B or C, without names.
26th of June – Swiss bank Credit Suisse reacts to the audit by saying that the findings are “incorrect and misleading” and guarantees that commissions received were $ 23 million.
27th of June – Financial consultant Palomar believes that Kroll’s report “has flaws, is incomplete, and contains a number of misleading and wrong statements,” regretting not having cooperated in the process.
27th of June – The US asks Mozambique to take “concrete actions” after the disclosure of the audit, considering that “there is more to do”.
30th of June – The president of Ematum, MAM and Proindicus, António do Rosário, confirms that he ousted Kroll’s auditors from his office “because they wanted details about state security issues.”
04th of July – The Government assures the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2015 that there were no loans other than the financial operation of Ematum, shows an exchange of emails released by the financial information agency Bloomberg.
12th of October – Lawyers for the three public companies involved in the hidden loans in Mozambique assure that operations were “public from day one” and that the $ 500 million to be accounted for in the audit was transferred to the defense budget.
2018
29th of January – The PGR announces that it will ask for the financial accountability of public managers and state companies that have contracted the hidden debt.
03rd of August – Creditors propose to pay only $200 million by 2023, and from there receive the remainder based on gas revenues.
16th of October – The banks that negotiated the secret loans present a proposal similar to that of the holders of public debt.
06th of November – The Mozambican government announces that it has reached an agreement with the public debt holders, resuming payments in 2019 and delivering 5 per cent of natural gas tax revenues from 2033.
08th of November – The finance minister announces that he wants to bring all creditors together in a debt swap forum in the first quarter of 2019.
12th of November – The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) drops the criminal investigation against Credit Suisse, the Financial Times reported.
29th of December – Former Mozambican Finance Minister and current Frelimo MP Manuel Chang is held in South Africa, accused of money laundering and financial fraud.
2019
03rd of January – The British authorities arrest three former Credit Suisse bankers in London at the request of the United States Justice.
04th of January – Credit Suisse claims no lawsuit was filed against the bank and noted that the US judicial investigation says the former bankers tried to circumvent the bank’s rules.
04th of January – Renamo argues that the detention by the US court shows that there was a criminal practice and that, therefore, the debt should not be paid.
05th of January – The United States Court of Appeal assumes that former President Armando Guebuza received bribes to enable the financing of state-owned company, Proindicus.
05th of January – The two main opposition parties say there is a “mafia network” in the Mozambican state.
09th of January – The Finance Ministry says the preliminary agreement for the restructuring of sovereign bonds remains, despite a US prosecution.
09th of January – The Kempton Park court judge in Johannesburg rules that Manuel Chang’s detention in South Africa is legal.
10th of January – The interim coordinator of Renamo defends the extradition of former finance minister Manuel Chang to the United States and the suspension of the incorporation of ‘hidden debt’ into the 2015 State Budget.
14th of January – Former Mozambican Finance Minister Tomaz Salomão says the case of his successor Manuel Chang should serve as an example, pointing out that the country must recover the funds diverted in the operation of hidden debts.
18th of January – The court judge to re-examine Manuel Chang’s extradition request.
Source: Lusa
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