Mozambique: Central bank “not afraid of being audited”

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Mozambique: Central bank “not afraid of being audited”

4:07 CAT | 28 May 2024

Photo: Banco de Moçambique

The governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Rogério Zandamela, said yesterday in Maputo that the country’s financial regulator “is not afraid of being audited”, after the Mozambican parliament rejected a proposal to subject the central bank to supervision by the Administrative Tribunal.

The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) parliamentary bench last week dismissed an opposition proposal to include the Bank of Mozambique within the scope of the audit of the Administrative Tribunal (TA).

“The bank’s accounts are audited, it’s very important that [the bank] is not a ‘black box’ where no one knows what’s there. This is not the case – our accounts are audited by an external and independent auditor, and published,” Zandamela said.

The central bank governor was speaking at a press conference announcing the measures taken by the Monetary Policy Committee (CPM) of the Bank of Mozambique, which met yesterday.

“The 2023 accounts have already been published, transparency exists, whether the Administrative Tribunal should audit our accounts or not is not up to us. We are not afraid of the audit, we work within the law,” he emphasized.

Rogério Zandamela considered that the Assembly of the Republic was “visionary”, having given the Bank of Mozambique the instruments to be able to operate with speed, flexibility, autonomy and the necessary operational independence, thereby preventing the regulator from justifying inaction on the grounds that its hands were “tied” due to lack of sufficient powers to perform its functions.

“We work with the laws; we do not determine the laws that govern the financial system,” he highlighted.

The ruling party bench justified its decision with the risk of the proposal undermining the independence of the financial regulator, while the opposition understands that placing the Bank of Mozambique outside the jurisdiction of the Administrative Tribunal keeps the institution scot-free in terms of transparency.

In April, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP) non-governmental organization accused the government of trying to “restrict the powers of the Administrative Tribunal in monitoring public accounts”.

“The proposal to exclude the Bank of Mozambique from oversight by the Administrative Tribunal[TA] is unconstitutional and problematic, as oversight by the TA is crucial to ensuring that the Mozambican central bank operates in compliance with established laws and regulations, in order to prevent corruption and abuses of power,” the CIP statement argued.

According to the CIP, monitoring the central bank falls within the TA’s role of supervising public funds, as established in article 229 of the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique.

Source: Lusa