WATCH: Man arrested over ‘USAID’ employment scam in Zambézia, Mozambique

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WATCH: Man arrested over ‘USAID’ employment scam in Zambézia, Mozambique

7:00 CAT | 19 Feb 2018

TVM

A Mozambican was arrested by the Mozambican police last week in the district of Morrumbala, Zambezia province, accused of committing fraud and fraudulently using the name of an American which supposedly providing work vacancies.

The scheme reportedly benefited the accused and his accomplices to the tune of thousands of meticais, and ran up debts of 17 million meticais.

According to the authorities, Mendes used the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a front for non-existent employment vacancies, and charged candidates money.

USAID is a United States of America institution under the purview of the US embassy in Mozambique.

Mendes was arrested last Thursday in Quelimane while conducting an alleged ‘USAID’ interview, and stands accused of being the mastermind of the project.

He and his team settled in Morrumbala, where they rented a house and luxury vehicles. They set up offices and advertised vacancies for middle and senior-rank technicians in various branches, but the plan was a scam.

Zambézia police spokesman Miguel Caetano said that Mendes was now accused of fraud. forgery, falsification of documents, and the illegal exercise of duties and use of false name to achieve other ends.

During applications, candidates were invited to pay money as a way to expedite the admission process and get better salaries and perks.

The amounts extracted ranged from 10 to 60 thousand meticais and, according to the accused, at least 270 people submitted applications and paid the sums in question. Some of them even worked for a few months, although without pay.

Mendes was detained when he presented himself to the local government as the provincial coordinator of USAID’s Research and Extension Project (PPE), intending to formalise his status.

Idrice said he did not know that the institution he was affiliated with was false, nor that it required money to admit people. He had worked for the Peace Corps, and his task was to receive reports from other organisations and then go into the field to check that the activities described in the reports had been carried out.

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Source: A Verdade / TVM