Mozambique: IMF demands proof of live for all state workers

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Mozambique: IMF demands proof of live for all state workers

2:57 CAT | 22 Jan 2024

File photo: Reuters

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is requiring the Government of Mozambique to subject all public servants to a “proof of life” test by June this year, as a condition of its technical and financial assistance programme for the country.

The information is contained in the recent report that completes the IMF’s third assessment of the implementation of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme with Mozambique, 36 months old, and which, despite being approved, allowing new disbursement, identifies three objectives “which were not fulfilled” by the government and which were scheduled for 2023.

Among these measures that have not yet progressed is the review in parliament of the Public Probity law, which was scheduled for June 2023 and which should now be completed by next March, and the public availability of information on the beneficiaries of companies that enter into contracts with the state, planned for the end of December and rescheduled for September this year.

The third measure that remained to be fulfilled in this assessment was the completion, by September, of “the general audit and ‘proof of life’ of all public sector employees”, the document states, justifying the measure with operational difficulties, having been agreed that it will be completed by next June.

On the other hand, the Mozambican government, in a context of fragility, managed by the end of 2023 to implement five of the eight objectives, or Structural Reference Indicators (SRI), agreed with the IMF.

In particular, a legal diploma was approved to determine the price reference for the extractive industry, the audit reports for 2020 and 2021 were published on Covid-19 emergency expenses, the electronic tax system was extended to all services of fiscal administration and presented to the Council of Ministers a plan to limit the wage bill.

With the approval of this third assessment and respective tranche, total disbursements to Mozambique under this IMF ECF amount to around US$273 million (€249.2 million). This ECF programme was approved in May 2022, and provides total financing of US$456 million (€416.2 million) to Mozambique.

The most recent data shows that the Mozambican state’s operating expenses increased by 9.4% in the first nine months of 2023, to 237,414 million meticais (€3,392 million), driven by increases in salaries.

According to the economic and social balance of the execution of the State Budget from January to September, from the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mozambique, this performance corresponds to 78.9% of all state operating expenses planned for this year, evaluated at almost 316,919 million meticais (€4,520 million).

The largest item is personnel expenses, which grew 16.1% until the end of September, compared to the same period in 2022, to almost 146,365 million meticais (€2,091 million), representing 78.9% of the total budgeted for the 12 months.

Specifically, salaries and wages represented an increase in public expenditure of 17.9% in nine months compared to the same period in 2022, to 141,641 million meticais (€2,024 million), equivalent to 80.4% of the budget for the entire year.

Source: Lusa