Mozambique expects to raise €10.2 million from the auction of Ematum fishing boats

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Mozambique expects to raise €10.2 million from the auction of Ematum fishing boats

5:16 CAT | 10 Feb 2025

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Notícias]

The Mozambican government hopes to raise a total of US$10.6 million (€10.2 million) with the auction of 24 fishing boats from the Mozambican Tuna Company (Ematum), one of those involved in the hidden debt scandal.

“The fleet has virtually no fishing history, which ensures that the Caterpillar engines and the navigation and fishing equipment are in excellent condition. The tuna vessels are split between vessels equipped for freezing tuna and others prepared for fresh tuna fishing,” says an official note presenting the lot, to which Lusa had access on Monday.

The 24 vessels, of which 21 are tuna boats and three are trawlers, are moored in the Port of Maputo, and the bidding period runs until 21 February 2025, the document adds.

“Originally, the boats were configured to accommodate eight crew members. However, adaptations have been made to support a crew of up to 14 people,” the note adds.

In the documents supporting the proposal for the economic and social plan and state budget (PESOE) consulted by Lusa in November 2023, the Mozambican government planned to complete the liquidation of Ematum last year, as part of the reform of the state business sector (SEE).

Ematum’s main activity is fishing and it is one of the three state-owned companies responsible for the hidden debts case triggered in 2016, involving the alleged bribery of public officials, including the former minister of finance Manuel Chang, to approve contracts and the financing of loans for three state-owned companies (also Proindicus and MAM) for the purchase of fishing boats and maritime safety equipment from Privinvest.

The former director of the Mozambican secret services, Gregório Leão, justified the creation of the Mozambican Tuna Company in September 2021, during the trial of the hidden debts case in Maputo, with the need to gather information about suspicious activities on the Mozambican coast.

“Ematum was for tuna fishing and also to provide us with information, through intelligence work on what was happening at sea,” Leão said in court.

The public prosecutor’s indictment pointed out that Ematum received US$850 million (€727 million) and was one of three firms used as a vehicle to materialise the criminal scheme.

Discovered in 2016, the debts were estimated at around US$2.7 billion (around €2.55 billion at the current exchange rate), according to the indictment filed by the Mozambican public prosecutor, giving rise to legal proceedings in London, the United States and Mozambique.

Source: Lusa