Former chairperson of Mozambique’s Agricultural Development Fund arrested on corruption charges

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Former chairperson of Mozambique’s Agricultural Development Fund arrested on corruption charges

4:15 CAT | 28 Sep 2016

In File Club of Mozambique

Former Agricultural Development Fund (FDA) chairperson was arrested last week by the Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC) on charges of embezzlement, corruption, abuse of job function and influence peddling.

Eleven other defendants of the total 40 accused of involvement have also been arrested, many of them from private companies.

Of the total number of defendants, the GCCC says 14 are FDA employees, one is from the Tax Authority and two from Mozambique Electricity (EDM).

According to the charges, the former FDA chairperson and other defendants allegedly secured funds to finance fictitious projects and diverted the proceeds into their own pockets.

In some cases, they allegedly devised livestock projects where between 50 to 70 percent of the financing granted by the FDA was transferred to the former chairperson. In other situations, companies contracted by FDA would have simply paid backhanders.

The GCCC also charges the former chairperson with allocating grants equal to an entire additional salary to herself and other employees for public holidays such as May 1 and June 25, without any legal basis.

The accused is also alleged to have ordered the institution’s finance department to pay internal travel allowances in foreign currency, mainly the US dollar, thus earning much more than the amounts usually payable.

Source: Noticias