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Mozambique: CIP demands suspension of “hidden debts” restructuring
12:34 CAT | 07 Jan 2019
in file CoM
The Mozambican Public Integrity Centre (CIP), an NGO, on Sunday demanded the immediate suspension of the restructuring of the debts of public companies Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, on the grounds that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the loans were contracted illegally.
“The Mozambican government must immediately suspend the restructuring of the three companies’ debts, which means the suspension of all agreements signed with the international creditors holding the securities of the hidden debts,” a CIP press release said.
The statement relates to developments in the ongoing investigation by US justice officials into the process, leading to the arrest in South Africa of former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang, as well as three former Credit Suisse bankers in London and a Lebanese intermediary for Privinvest at New York airport.
Credit Suisse and Russian Bank VTB lent ProIndicus USD$622 million and a further USD$500 million to MAM in 2013 and 2014, plus a further USD$727.5 million owed by the Mozambican government as a result of launching Ematum debt in the market.
Loans to the two state-owned companies are considered illegal, as they were neither endorsed by the Attorney General’s Office nor validated by parliament. Neither has parliament discussed evidence advanced by the US justice system of alleged bribes paid to senior executives the Mozambican government and the banks involved.
Defendants must be suspended
According to CIP, the US accusations regarding the hidden debts in Mozambique “are serious enough that no debt repayment should be made”, and the body demands that “all Mozambican government officials and government members accused by American justice organs of receiving bribes in the context of contracting debts should immediately cease their functions until the case is fully clarified”.
In addition to former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, who was detained in South Africa on December 29 on suspicion of money laundering and financial fraud, the US justice case involves a further five Mozambican suspects
“CIP recognises that all defendants are constitutionally innocent until there is a final judgement, but given the seriousness of the allegations and the evidence presented by the US courts, it is not appropriate for public servants implicated in this case to continue to carry out their duties,” said the press release.
CIP also remarks on “the silence of national sovereignty bodies such as the Presidency of the Republic, the Government of the Republic of Mozambique and the Assembly of the Republic, and even the Frelimo party, in the face of such serious revelations about the country’s top leaders”. For the Public Integrity Centre, the silence “reveals the level of promiscuity and unwillingness to resolve in a transparent way the imbroglio which has harmed the Mozambican people most of all”.
CIP also believes that the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office should “use all available cooperation mechanisms to obtain relevant information from the US courts on Mozambicans accused of receiving bribes, in order to hold them liable”.
“This debt is not ours, we refuse to pay,” the organisation concludes.
Read the CIP – Press Note – PT
Source: DW
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