Watch: CTA, Total create ‘task force’ to address late payments “nightmare” – Lusa report

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Watch: CTA, Total create ‘task force’ to address late payments “nightmare” – Lusa report

12:42 CAT | 21 Apr 2021

Screen grab: Miramar

The Confederation of Economic Associations of Mozambique (CTA) and oil company Total have created a joint team to address the “nightmare” of late payments to Mozambican companies following the attack on Palma and the departure of the oil company from Cabo Delgado.

“The CTA presented to Total and the French ambassador private sector concerns resulting from the terrorist attacks ” during meetings held today [Tuesday], Agostinho Vuma, president of Mozambique’s principal business association, told a press conference in Maputo.

Among the issues addressed was the delay in payments, which is becoming “a nightmare for the private sector”, he said, adding that Total said it was “working hard to find solutions for ongoing contracts, through contractors” and that “it has no late payments”.

The CTA and the oil company had agreed to “create a joint ‘task force’ to map outstanding payments, and whose goods had been ordered by contractors”, and “facilitate, contract by contract, the fulfilment of obligations with small and medium-sized Mozambican companies”.

“Total guaranteed that it has already paid all the companies with which it has a contract, but these companies have also subcontracted others, most of them Mozambican, which may not be making payments,” he explained.

The next step is to “carry out a survey to see who these companies are and what is going on,” Vuma said.

The CTA leader underlined the concern about the money spent on goods to be delivered, at a time when the project has been halted indefinitely.

“At the meetings, it was the CTA’s concern to obtain clarity from Total about the goods in transit and in the warehouse still to be delivered. The CTA, together with the government and Total, is making the necessary effort to minimise this issue as soon as possible,” said Vuma, adding that there were “guarantees” from the oil company that the situation was being “taken care of”.

The CTA leader also said that both the French ambassador and Total had ruled out any relocation of the gas project to the Mayotte islands, a French overseas department some 600 kilometres from Palma. “They do not consider it an option for the project,” only “for the installation of hospital services” for staff being evacuated.

Total also said that the security of the project enclosure on the Afungi peninsula was still being managed by the Mozambican government, and that it had decided to “keep equipment in place, as a sign that it does not intend to move to other points, such as the Mayotte islands”, or “terminate the project”.

The oil company has abandoned for an indefinite period work on its Rovuma Basin natural gas project, at around €20 billion the largest private investment in Africa, after the 24 March attack on the town of Palma.

The attack, the most recent in three and a half years of insurgency, caused dozens of deaths (unofficial estimate) among residents and others linked to the gas project.

Despite the attempts made since then, Lusa has not yet been able to obtain clarification from the oil company regarding the future of the project.

Agostinho Vuma on Tuesday repeated figures he advanced last week in an interview with Lusa, to the effect that 410 companies had closed and 56,000 jobs disappeared in those districts of Cabo Delgado affected by the insurgency, at a combined cost of €80 million in destruction, late payments and goods in transit without certainty of delivery.

Vuma said yesterday that these figures include the Palma attack and that, in retrospect, Mocímboa da Praia was the worst affected district.

According to Vuma’s previous statements, a further 700 companies outside the districts under attack have closed since the beginning of the conflict, and 43,000 subsistence farmers been driven off their land.