Mozambique: Court orders misappropriated covid funds to be repaid

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Mozambique: Court orders misappropriated covid funds to be repaid

3:54 CAT | 12 Jul 2022

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File photo: Lusa

Mozambique’s Administrative Tribunal(TA) has sentenced several public managers to return money for embezzlement and misapplication of funds intended to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the institution said, without mentioning amounts.

“Many managers who transgressed the rules were obliged to pay back the amount. It is not enough to say that they made application errors, it is necessary to repair the damage,” said Jeremias Zuande, from the accounts and audit office of TA, quoted by Mozambican daily Notícias.

Those targeted committed offences such as under-invoicing, withdrawing funds without supporting documents, improper direct awards, misapplication and undue payments, Zuande added.

The offences led to a loss of around 2 billion meticais (over 31 million euros), he said.

He noted that the sanctions were applied after audits were carried out on 75 percent of state institutions that received funds to combat Covid-19.

Last week, a source from the Mozambican ministry of economy and finance told Lusa that the institution had delivered to the central office for the fight against corruption (GCCC) the report that detected irregularities in the funds used in the fight against the pandemic.

“Within the framework of inter-institutional collaboration, the report was made available to the GCCC,” said the source, without giving further details.

The Mozambican government had already acknowledged that about 11 percent of donor money for Mozambique to tackle Covid-19 in 2020 was used improperly.

At issue is the equivalent of about 30 million euros of the total 285 million euros in donations used by the Mozambican state in 2020.

The donor fund for Mozambique’s response plan to Covid-19 included contributions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, European Union (EU), United States and the Global Fund.

Source: Lusa