Civil society accuses Bank of Mozambique of exclusion in debate on sovereign wealth fund

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Civil society accuses Bank of Mozambique of exclusion in debate on sovereign wealth fund

3:37 CAT | 26 Aug 2019

in file CoM

Six Mozambican civil society organisations have accused the Bank of Mozambique of excluding them from the debate on the creation of a sovereign wealth fund, adding that their participation would ensure compliance with “good practices” in the management of any such fund.

The organisations expressed their discontent in an open letter published on Wednesday in the Mozambican media.

The letter’s subscribers accuse Bank of Mozambique governor Rogério Zandamela of ignoring requests for civil society participation in the debate over the creation of a sovereign wealth fund.

The fund will be supported by money from the exploitation of natural resources (mainly gas), and civil society participation is seen as a guarantee of transparency in the management of profits generated by the extractive sector.

“We considered it [the lack of response to the request to participate in the debates on the sovereign wealth fund] unacceptable and interpret this attitude as a lack of transparency,” the text reads.

According to the six subscribing organisations, by ignoring the request, Rogério Zandamela reveals authoritarian traits and deprives discussions on the sovereign wealth fund of contributions on good practices in managing such funds.

“There are experiences of civil society participation, in various forms, in sovereign wealth funds in other countries. Coincidentally, these are considered as good practice cases,” the letter reads.

The open letter is endorsed by the Public Integrity Centre (CIP), the Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO), the Institute for Economic and Social Studies (IESE), the Rural Observatory (OMR), the Civil Society Training and Learning Centre ( CESC) and the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).

Source: Lusa