Mozambique: Government to spend 300 million meticais renewing fleet of luxury vehicles

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Mozambique: Government to spend 300 million meticais renewing fleet of luxury vehicles

3:43 CAT | 07 May 2020

Image: A Verdade

Despite the crisis which Mozambique has been facing since 2016 and the additional sacrifices required to counter the new coronavirus pandemic, the Mozambican government is buying a new batch of luxury vehicles for its members, having allocated to this end – in the state budget, approved during a state of emergency and at a deficit of 109 billion meticais – an amount three times the cost of building 1,555 classrooms, and equal to the construction cost of 11 district and three general hospitals.

@Verdade has learned that, for the sixth consecutive year, the Mozambican government has allocated hundreds of millions of meticais – always while running a deficit – for the “acquisition of vehicles for State institutions”.

@Verdade learned that 300 million meticais [around US$4.4 million] was allocated for the purchase of new luxury vehicles in 2020, despite the economic crisis obtaining since the disclosure of the ‘hidden debts’ in 2016 and the recession caused by the new coronavirus pandemic.

The money will purchase Mercedes-Benz, Range Rover, Jeep, Toyota Prado and Ford Everest luxury vehicles costing from 3.2 million to 1.1 million meticais apiece – and well suited to the refined tastes of the Mozambican state’s top-tier functionaries.

The amount budgeted is almost three times the 102 million meticais allocated in the same 2020 State Budget for the construction of 1,355 primary education classrooms and for completing the construction of 200 secondary education classrooms, still leaving more than 150,000 Mozambican children studying in the open.

The 300 million meticais to be spent on luxury cars for senior Mozambican state officials, who never walk anywhere or use ‘chapas’, is the equivalent to the sum of 136 million allocated in the state budget to complete the construction of 11 district hospitals, plus the 174 million meticais allocated. to complete work on three general hospitals.

1.9 billion meticais spent on luxury cars since 2015

In fact, what the executive will spend on luxury cars is six times more than the entire budget of the National Institute of Health, the institution which, despite having its funds cut this year, is on the forefront of efforts to prevent the spread of and otherwise combat Covid-19.

Oe2020-carros-passado — *State Budgets 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 . [Image: A Verdade]*

@Verdade also found that, in 2019, just as this year, 300 million meticais was spent on luxury vehicles. Expenditure on luxury cars in 2018 was 450 million meticais, and in 2017 300 million meticais; in 2016 it was 314 million, and in 2015, again 300 million.

In total, the government led by Filipe Nyusi has spent a total of 1.9 billion meticais on luxury vehicles, at the cost of classrooms promised, hospitals not built, and water and sanitation systems that never materialise.

By Adérito Caldeira

Source: A Verdade