FDA Fraud: Prosecution plans second case against Setina Titosse – AIM report

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FDA Fraud: Prosecution plans second case against Setina Titosse – AIM report

9:13 CAT | 22 Sep 2017

Notícias (File photo)

The Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office intends to bring Setina Titosse, former chairperson of the Agricultural Development Fund (FDA), to trial for her violations of the Law on Public Probity.

Titosse and 23 others are currently on trial before the Maputo City Court for allegedly defrauding the FDA between 2012 and 2015 of 170 million meticais (about 5.6 million US dollars, at the exchange rate of the time).

But on Thursday, presecutor Joao Nhane declared his intention of opening a separate case against Titosse for her failure to declare her assets truthfully during her years at the head of the FDA. He thus requested the judge, Alexandre Samuel, to provide the prosecution with a copy of the testimony gioven by Titosse last week.

Under the Law on Public Probity all senior officials in the public sector are obliged to declare their assets. They should make this declaration on taking office, update it every year, and make a final declaration on leaving office.

Titosse admitted that she had not declared her assets. She said she had acquired a seres of buildings while she was FDA chairperson, but had never declared them. Regardless of whether the buildings were purchased with proceeds from the fraud, the very fact that Titosse did not declare them is in itself a violation of the law.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Danilo Jossubo, a managing partner in the Joss Village consortium, a luxury housing development in the Triunfo neighbourhood of Maputo, confirmed that the FDA had purchased nine apartments there, six of them when Titosse was chairperson. Titosse had also purchased another apartment in her own name.

Edson Dimande, an official of a second housing project, Intaka, in the city of Matola, confirmed that one of those accused of involvement in the FDA fraud, Natalia Matuca, had purchased a house there. Matuca had testified to the court that she had asked Titosse for a loan of three million meticais so that could pay instalments on this house.

The trial has now been adjourned until 10 October, when, at the request of both the prosecution and some of the defence lawyers, Titosse and several of the other accused will confront each other and will be asked to explain their contradictory evidence.

Titosse’s lawyer, Jaime Sunda, has also asked the judge to obtain the reports from the audits made of the FDA between 2013 and 2016. The prosecution has gone further and wants to call the heads of the audit team to give evidence as witnesses.

Source: AIM