Assembly agrees commission of inquiry into debt – Mozambique

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Assembly agrees commission of inquiry into debt – Mozambique

5:46 CAT | 09 Jun 2016

In File Club of Mozambique / Parliament

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, is set to create a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the country’s public debt, following a two day emergency sitting in which deputies quizzed the government about the debt crisis.

There was rare unanimity among the parliamentarians about the need to form a commission of inquiry. Deputies from the ruling Frelimo Party were the first to make the proposal during the debate – although the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) pointed out that it submitted a motion calling for just such a commission over a month ago.

Frelimo deputy Sergio Pantie, who is also a member of the party’s Political Commission said the commission should be set up immediately to establish why the Mozambique Tuna Company (Ematum), Proindicus and Mozambique Asset Management (MAM) contracted loans, amounting to over two billion US dollars, which were then guaranteed by the previous government, led by President Armando Guebuza.

The MDM wanted to go further and urged that there should be a forensic audit of the public debt, to ensure greater transparency. “What is preventing the government from requesting a forensic audit?”, asked Jose Manuel de Sousa. He feared there might be other “hidden debts” yet to be revealed.

A Commission of Inquiry was the only issue on which the deputies could agree. Members of the rebel movement Renamo accused the current government of covering up the crimes of its predecessor, and of diverting some of the money from the loans to the military.

Renamo deputy Carlos Manuel accused the government of “gangsterism and corruption at the highest level”, and alleged that Guebuza had arranged the three loans after he had failed in attempts to change the Constitution so that he could run for a third term of office (Guebuza himself has repeatedly stated that he never wanted a third term). “How much of this money was spent on weapons?”, asked Manuel.

“The illegal debts are already being paid for by the suffering of the people”, declared a second Renamo member, Americo Ubisse. “The illegal debt was spent on weapons and on an illegal and undeclared war”.

Frelimo deputies pointed out that it is Renamo that is waging war on the government and not the other way round. While Renamo deputies draw parliamentary wages in Maputo, other Renamo members are attacking trucks and trains in the central provinces.

The head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Margarida Talapa, urged Renamo to lay down its weapons. “Let us allow the government to do its job!”, she urged. “Stop killing the Mozambican people! Stop the attacks! Mozambicans want peace”.

Ana Rita Sithole said it was military instability, and not the debt crisis, that was largely to blame for the rise in the cost of living, while Francisco Mucanheia suggested that, by running an illegal militia, while drawing money from the state budget, it was Renamo, and not the government which was violating the Constitution.

Several Frelimo deputies justified the loans on the basis of “national security”, although the government has dropped this argument – it did not feature in the presentation of the public debt made by Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Wednesday.

Mucanheia said the guaranteed loans were necessary “to defend our natural resources”, and protect them from piracy and illegal fishing. (Proindicus was set up for this protective purpose, but no oil and gas company, or any other company operating in the Mozambique Channel, has yet requested its services).

Mucanheia then went on to spin a complex conspiracy theory in which unspecified “hidden interests” were working for “regime change” in Mozambique, and were using civil society and independent media “to stir up hatred”

It was more difficult for Frelimo to reply to criticism from the MDM, since the MDM does not have blood on its hands, and cannot credibly be accused of contributing to the current economic crisis.

MDM deputy Armando Artur questioned why maritime security was being handed over to a company, Proindicus. “Where is the Mozambican navy? Where is the FADM (Mozambican Defence Force)?”, he asked.

His colleague Geraldo de Carvalho said that handing over security of the coast to what was technically a private company (although the Proindicus shareholders are state bodies) was intended “to enrich a handful of government members, showing complete contempt for the Mozambican navy”.

“We are facing a crime of high treason”, said Carvalho, and called for the bank accounts of Guebuza and of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang to be frozen.

A third MDM deputy, Jose Lobo, pointed out that the Guebuza government had violated the limits on government guarantees set in the 2013 and 2014 budget laws. Mozambique should not be bound by “illegal, criminal and odious debts”. Instead the government should cancel the guarantees which its predecessor had offered to what Lobo called “international loan sharks”.

Lobo also asked what was the real value of the 30 boats acquired by Ematum from the CMN shipyard in the French port of Cherbourg. In 2013, the French press reported that the value of the Ematum order to CMN was 200 million euros (about 230 million dollars). Yet the Ematum accounts state that Ematum paid CMN’s mother company, Abu Dhabi Mar, over 830 million dollars for the boats. Lobo asked for (but did not receive) an explanation for this discrepancy.

Source: AIM