Corruption cost Mozambique almost ten million dollars last year

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Corruption cost Mozambique almost ten million dollars last year

9:05 CAT | 19 Apr 2023

Photo: O País

Corruption cost the Mozambican state over 617 million meticais (about 9.6 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) in 2022, according to Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili.

Delivering her annual report on the state of the country’s justice system to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday, she said this compared with 303 million meticais lost to corruption in 2021.

These figures refer to cases of corruption that came to the knowledge of prosecutors, and so the real figure could be considerably higher.

“As in previous years”, said Buchili, “public contracting remains one of the areas prone to corruption, given the large financial flows and the volume of transactions involved. It is expressed through the abuse of office, and other acts that are an assault against public probity”.

These abuses, she said, lead to “the diversion of public funds and undue accumulation of wealth”.

Corruption in public contracting, Buchili continued, “can lead to the inefficiency of the State, in that funds intended for socio-economic projects and the development of the country are diverted to serve individual interests”.

A flagrant example was the diversion of funds intended for humanitarian assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic. These thefts occurred in the national relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), the National Social Welfare Institute (INAS), and the Ministries of Education, Health and Public Works.

Five cases are being investigated, but have yet to come to court. Buchili did not estimate how much money had been stolen from the Covid-19 funds.

Corruption was also a serious problem in the issuing of documents. Buchili said “public servants are involved in schemes for the fraudulent issuing of identity cards, passports, visas and residency cards for foreigners”.

The fake documents allowed the individuals concerned to claim that they hold Mozambican nationality, and even to vote in Mozambican elections.

Even worse, Buchili added, the forged identity documents allowed entry into the country of “individuals who form part of criminal organisations, and whose activities endanger the security and sovereignty of the State”.

But a good number of corrupt public managers have been caught. The Administrative Tribunal (the body responsible for checking the legality of public expenditure) has obliged 521 public managers to repay 493 million meticais they had diverted, plus paying fines of 39 million meticais.

Buchili added that the Central Office for the Recovery of Assets (GCRA) handled 42 cases last year. The goods seized by the GCRA and by other bodies subordinated to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, included 30 buildings, valued at 613.4 million meticais, 12 vehicles valued at almost 20 million meticais, and other goods valued at almost 18 million meticais.

The total value of the goods seized was almost 1.2 billion meticais – a considerable increase on the 2021figure of 734.6 million meticais.

The purpose of the seizures, said Buchili, was “the economic asphyxiation of criminals”. By preventing criminals from re-investing what they had stolen, the seizures “show that crime does not pay”.

Source: AIM