Mozambique: Cost of corruption ‘violent’ – GCCC

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Mozambique: Cost of corruption ‘violent’ – GCCC

4:14 CAT | 10 Feb 2021

File photo: Noticias

Mozambique’s Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC) considered the cost of corruption in the country “violent”, criticising the lack of mobilisation of society against this type of crime.

“The cost of corruption remains violent in public administration, and its impact affects peaceful citizens,” GCCC spokesman Stephen Manjate said in an interview with Mozambique’s Information Agency (AIM).

In 2020, corruption resulted in the diversion of 1.3 billion meticais (€14.2 million) from the state budget for public managers’ benefit, Manjate said.

“This damage was most evident in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which showed the fragility of our social infrastructure,” he added.

Manjate pointed to the large and medium-scale corruption characterised by embezzlement of funds in the public administration funds and led by senior officials and leaders as one of the greatest scourges in public administration.

The GCCC spokesperson pointed to the health, registry and notary sectors, the National Institute of Land Transport, education and customs as the most critical, due to increased demand for services.

Manjate criticised the lack of social mobilisation in the fight against state resources abuse, pointing in particular to the lack of commitment by the leadership.

“When it comes to launching agrarian campaigns, vaccination or electoral processes, we see everyone is involved, including governments at the highest level. The day we achieve this [in anti-corruption campaigns], we will improve the perception rate [about corruption],” he stressed.

Despite this gap, justice has been able to bring 95% of corruption cases to trial, resulting in the conviction of those involved.

“Fortunately, 95% of the corruption cases that are prosecuted have had defendants held accountable,” the GCCC spokesman said.

Manjate praised the Penal Code innovations because it aggravates the penal framework applied to crimes of corruption.

Mozambique lost one point, from 26 to 25, and fell three positions, from 146 to 149, in the 2020 edition of Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index.

Source: Lusa