Education Permanent Secretary must combat corruption

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Education Permanent Secretary must combat corruption

9:47 CAT | 24 Sep 2018

Photo: RM

Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario on Thursday challenged the new Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry, Jose Seiuane Junior, to seek solutions for an ever more effective struggle against corruption in his sector.

Speaking at the ceremony where he swore Seiuane into office, Rosario stressed that corruption threatens the objective of the government, which is to ensure a system that can raise the level of education in the country.

Corruption, he warned, has a negative impact on the teaching and learning process at all levels of education.

“Corruption should be prevented and fought against at all levels, as well as ensuring the careful management of public resources, strictly obeying the legislation and strengthening the internal control mechanisms”, the Prime Minister urged.

Rosario added that the Permanent Secretary “has the duty to assist in the search for solutions leading to a continual reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio, as well as achieving the school building plan”.

Rosario also swore into office Eusebio Tumutikile and Abdul Mussuale as the general manager and deputy general manager of the Agricultural Development Fund (FDA).

The government has restructured the FDA, following the sentencing of its former chairperson of the board, Setina Titosse, to 18 years imprisonment after a major corruption trial in late 2017. She was accused of heading a scheme which embezzled 170 million meticais (about 2.8 million US dollars at today’s exchange rates, but worth much more when the crimes were committed).

The money was stolen through an intricate scheme in which relatives and friends of Titosse were invited to submit livestock projects that would use FDA lines of credit. But the projects were bogus, and the money was not used for any agricultural purpose.

In the new FDA structure, the position of chairperson of the board has disappeared, and the highest officer is the general manager. Tumutikile has been working at the FDA for the past two years, and was previously director of agriculture in the northern province of Niassa.

Rosario told him that the government wants the FDA to recover the money it lends to farmers and livestock breeders.

The money is a loan and not a grant, and the Prime Minister urged the new manager to “improve the management mechanisms to ensure the return of the credit, so that the fund can be sustainable”.

Tumutikile pledged that the FDA will continue to raise the awareness of those who propose projects that the money they are requesting must be returned.

Rosario also urged the FDA leadership to concentrate on rehabilitating and maintaining irrigation infrastructures in order to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Source: AIM