Corruption cost 370 million meticais in three months – GCCC

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Corruption cost 370 million meticais in three months – GCCC

7:46 CAT | 25 Oct 2017

Acts of corruption cost the Mozambican state 370 million meticais (about six million US dollars) over the past three months, according to Cristovao Mondlane, spokesperson of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC).

Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Monday, Cristovao said “it is mainly officials of the financial departments who are involved in these cases. They create fictitious companies, or grant benefits to companies of their relatives who don’t even meet the requirements for being approved in tenders”.

He said that over the period, the GCCC began 284 cases. Some of these resulted from whistle-blowers among the public, and in other cases the GCCC itself took the initiative, often based on reports in the media.

In 187 of the cases, charges have been brought, said Cristovao, and 40 cases have been dropped for lack of evidence. In the other cases, investigations are ongoing. 80 per cent of the cases are against state employees who alleged practiced corruption, and the other 20 per cent are against citizens accused of “active corruption” – that is, they attempted to bribe or otherwise entice state officials.

Cristovao said very little about specific cases. He said that three people have been charged in the case of the bribe of 800,000 US dollars demanded from the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, but did not name them.

His reticence was surprising, since the names of two of them have been repeatedly mentioned in the media, and in legal proceedings in the United States and Brazil,

Thus, according to the testimony given by Embraer to Brazilian prosecutors, the then chairperson of Mozambique Airlines (LAM), Jose Viegas, in 2008 demanded the bribe from Embraer as a condition for LAM ordering two Embraer aircraft.

Mateus Zimba, then the Mozambique representative of the South African petrochemical company Sasol, was the intermediary who set up a shell company, named Xihevele and registered in Sao Tome, which handled the 800,000 dollar bribe.

The third person charged is believed to be former Transport Minister Paulo Zucula. His name, however, was not mentioned in the Brazilian of US documents, and the exact nature of his alleged involvement is not yet clear.

Source: AIM