Electricity and water companies reportedly owe millions of meticais to municipalities – DW

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Electricity and water companies reportedly owe millions of meticais to municipalities – DW

3:38 CAT | 24 Oct 2022

Image: DW

Mayor of Nampula Paulo Vahanle accuses public electricity and water companies of providing poor services to citizens. The President of the Association of Mozambican Municipalities Calisto Cossa says that the problem may be affecting more municipalities.

The mayor of the Mozambican city of Nampula, Paulo Vahanle, says he is disappointed with the companies Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) and Fundo de Investimento do Património de Abastecimento de Água (FIPAG), the electricity and water suppliers respectively, for failing to channel funds to the municipality, after collecting garbage and sanitation fees from their customers.

The municipality of Nampula should receive more than one million meticais a month from EDM [around €16,000] for the 10 meticais garbage fee discount which it charges its customers, but the money is taking a long time to arrive.

The mayor even implies dishonesty. “It is regrettable that Eletricidade de Moçambique in Nampula, after more than 15 years, has never updated [the list] of its customers in order to increase [in the municipal council’s accounts] the value of the garbage fee charged by the company,” Vahanle says.

The garbage fee is mandatory for consumers of energy from the national grid and must be transferred by the company to the municipality to pay for cleaning.

In addition to EDM, the president of the Nampula Municipal Council also accuses the water provider, FIPAG, of failing to channel funds for sanitation since its introduction into the municipal territory.

“FIPAG has collected the urban sanitation fee, but since the company started collecting fees [last year], there have been great difficulties in disbursing the amounts, without any justification,” Vahanle says.

More municipalities affected?

President of the National Association of Municipalities, Calisto Cossa, says that the problem may extend well beyond the municipality of Nampula, which is managed by the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO).

“Let’s not look at the position of the president of the municipality of Nampula as being isolated. I would like us to look at all municipalities, because the problems are similar. But the most important thing is that, once these problems are identified, we all work towards the solution,” Cossa said in an interview with DW Africa.

Mateus Saeze, director of FIPAG in Nampula, acknowledges the problem but says that the debts will be settled this year.

“We have assumed the commitment to pay the debts. By December of this year, at the latest, we will close the debt and normally pay the sanitation values, which are around 1.2 million meticais [€19,000],” he promised.

Although contacted on the matter repeatedly by DW Africa over the last two months, EDM declined to comment.

Source: Deutsche Welle