FDA fraud: Resumption of trial delayed

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FDA fraud: Resumption of trial delayed

8:24 CAT | 02 Nov 2017

O País (File photo)

The trial of Setina Titosse, former head of the Mozambican government’s Agricultural Development Fund (FDA), and 23 accomplices, accused of defrauding the FDA of 170 million meticais (about 5.6 million US dollars at the exchange rate of the time) should have resumed on Wednesday, but was postponed when key witnesses were unable to appear.

The trial was adjourned on 11 October for three weeks which the judge, Alexandre Samuel, clearly believed was enough time for experts, indicated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, to study reports from the auditors of the FDA accounts.

The judge, the prosecutor, and some of the accused and their lawyers all turned up at the courtroom – but the experts did not.

Judge Samuel announced that the experts said they were unable to attend because they had not finished their work with the auditors. Samuel agreed to extend the adjournment by a further three weeks. Hence the experts must present their assessment of the audit reports to the court on 10 November, and the trial itself will resume on 21 November.

Meanwhile, Setina Titosse has announced that she is appealing to the Administrative Tribunal against the decision by Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco to expel her from the state apparatus.

Titosse told reporters she was appealing against expulsion because the Minister should not have taken his decision before the trial is finished.

Her argument is weak, because the criminal and disciplinary proceedings are separate. The reason given by Pacheco for the expulsion is that Titosse has accumulated an unacceptably large number of unjustified absences from her workplace.

Source: AIM