Mozambique: Five NGOs to take recourse to UN and G20 over ”tuna bond” scandal

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Mozambique: Five NGOs to take recourse to UN and G20 over ”tuna bond” scandal

10:41 CAT | 22 Nov 2018

In file CoM

Five non-governmental organisations in Mozambique revealed on Friday they are to take recourse to the United Nations and G20, following news that Britain’s financial watchdog dropped a probe into the country’s hidden debts.

According to the financial Times, Credit Suisse recently escaped prosecution by the UK’s financial watchdog over the $2 billion “tuna bond” scandal in Mozambique.

The Financial Conduct Authority downgraded the case to a regulatory investigation, according to the Financial Times.

The scandal involved Credit Suisse arranging over $2 billion of hidden loans to Mozambique to build a tuna fishing fleet, which ended up going missing.

Mozambique, which was proving to be one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, ended up defaulting on the debt last year.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) decision “is yet further proof that the international community is not going to hold its own banks responsible, which are responsible for the debt” of the Mozambican state companies at the heart of the debt scandal, the organisations said in a statement.

The document, signed by the Budget Monitoring Forum, the National Integrity Centre, the Rural Observatory, the Institute for Social and Economic Studies and the Civil Society Support Mechanism, said they would take recourse to the UN and G20 to express their concerns that “the regulators might not be supporting” the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, which provides world leaders with guidelines for implementing the global sustainable development agenda.

“We now question the honesty of the United Kingdom and other donors, and we doubt their real commitment and good governance in Mozambique, because the international community considers that only leaders and the people of Mozambique are responsible for this debt, and relieve those that are behind it,” the statement reads.

Source: Lusa