Chissano welcomes transparency of loans investigation

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Chissano welcomes transparency of loans investigation

1:00 CAT | 10 Apr 2017

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Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano on Sunday applauded the “transparency” of the investigation into loans contracted in secret by public companies, which is demanding judicial access to the financial accounts of his successor, Armando Guebuza.

“It is good that there is transparency, of the investigation itself and also the people investigated,” Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique between 1996 and 2005, told Lusa.

Last week, the Bloomberg news agency reported that the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office (PGR) had sent letters to local banks asking for access to the bank accounts of former president Armando Guebuza and 17 other people, in the context of the audit of loans secretly contracted by public companies.

Chissano noted that the Mozambican government had already said that “anyone [responsible for] any anomalies,” would be brought to justice.

The hidden debt issue “will be clarified, there is an international commission that is working”, he said. “This is very good for our democracy, for our good governance. There is transparency in the way this is being treated.”

The former Mozambican President spoke to Lusa in Marrakesh, Morocco, where he was attending the “Ibrahim Governance Weekend,” promoted by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.

Chissano was the first laureate of the Ibrahim Award for Excellence in African Governance, awarded by the foundation in 2007. Other distinguished personalities honoured are former presidents Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Pedro Pires (Cape Verde) and Festus Mogae (Botswana).

Source: Lusa