Corruption round up – By Joseph Hanlon

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Corruption round up – By Joseph Hanlon

7:52 CAT | 10 Jan 2018

Setina Titosse, former chair of the government’s Agricultural Development Fund (FDA), was jailed for 18 years for organising a $5.6 mn fraud, in which money for fake projects was paid to individuals, many of whom were also convicted. The prosecution was based on a lengthy investigation by the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC).

Senior figures in the National Social Security Institute (INSS), and in the private company CR Aviation, have been charged with embezzlement and abuse of office. They include Rogerio Manuel, former chair of the CTA (Confederation of Mozambican Business Associations), who owns 49% of CR Aviation, and INSS chair Francisco Mazoio. The case involves one of an improper investment of $3 mn by INSS in CR, which was exposed in 2016 by Magazine Independente. AIM (En 26 Dec) notes that the deal was negotiated in the final year of the previous government, headed by President Armando Guebuza, and was one of several dubious investments by the INSS. The most notorious was the decision to sink social security funds into a tiny bank, Nosso Banco (“Our Bank”) which failed last year.

The former spokesperson for the Mozambican police in Gaza, Jeremias Langa, went on trial on 13 December for extorting $2,000 from a citizen in exchange for putting him in the police academy (ACIPOL) without passing the entrance examination. Langa’s scheme failed, and the victim was not admitted to ACIPOL. (AIM En 15 Dec)

More than 2400 officials are refusing the declare their assets, in violation of the 2012 Law on Public Probity, which obliges them to declare their assets. Lucia do Amaral, chair of the Reception and Verification Commission (CRV) which implements the law, told a Maputo seminar 21 December that 7,056 officials are obliged to declare their assets on taking office. They are supposed to update their declarations every year, and then make a final declaration on leaving office. But to date, the CRV has only received declarations from 4,454 officials. Those who should declare their assets include members of the central and provincial governments, members of parliament and of the provincial assemblies, judges, prosecutors, members of the board of the Bank of Mozambique, and managers of public institutions, public funds, and companies which are owned by the state or where the state has a holding. (AIM En 21 Dec) The declarations are not public.

Hundreds of traffic police have been reassigned, with many demoted. Two reasons were given. First, many do not have driving licences and sometimes misinterpret the highway code. And others were found to be corrupt. (Rhula 15 Dec)

One tonne of ivory from Mozambique was seized in Sihanoukville Port, Cambodia, on 5 December. (Rhula 15 Dec)

Brazil’s treasury is paying Mozambique’s corrupt bills. Mozambique is not repaying loans to the Brazilian development bank BNDES for two major contractors caught up in the lava jato (car wash) scandal – Odebrecht and Andrade Gutierrez. Both are now considered in default, so the Export Guarantee Fund paid $22.4 mn to BNDES in December, according to Folha de Sao Paulo (15 Dec) quoted in Savana (5 Jan). One non-payment is for Nacala airport, won by Odebrecht through a bribe, but completed and now an unused white elephant. The other is the Moamba Major dam, now paralyzed because the Brazilians halted the work because of Andrade Gutierrez. Ironically the dam is urgently needed to provide water to Maputo, and there are no suggestions of corruption on the Mozambican side, but Gutierrez was heavily involved in corruption in Brazil.

By Joseph Hanlon

Source: News reports & clippings