Mozambique: MDM calls for Commission of Inquiry to investigate contract between government and FMA – Watch

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Mozambique: MDM calls for Commission of Inquiry to investigate contract between government and FMA – Watch

4:35 CAT | 15 Apr 2025

Screen grab: STV

The parliamentary group of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) has called for a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) to investigate the contracts signed by the government and the South African company Fly Modern Ark (FMA) in order to audit the financial situation of Mozambique Airlines (LAM).

Over the last year, LAM was under the management of FMA, which was hired by the government to bring the company into profitability and rescue it from bankruptcy. The company’s debt amounted to about 300 million dollars.

Studies ordered by the government ruled out privatization of LAM as a solution. Instead, the government is selling shares in LAM to three reasonably healthy public companies – Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), which operates the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi; the rail and port company CFM; and the insurance company EMOSE.

According to Fernando Bismarque, head of MDM parliamentary group, who was speaking to reporters on Monday, the Commission of Inquiry must also investigate the contract signed between LAM and the Portuguese company Euro-Atlantic Airways (EAA).

“We have just deposited a draft resolution for the creation of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. We want to challenge the parliamentary groups to make the inquiry possible. The Assembly must take a stand in the fight against corruption, through its role as a watchdog of government action”, he said.

He explained that the Commission of Inquiry will scrutinize the legality of the compensation demanded by FMA and Euro Atlantic Airways.

“The explanation of the nature of these contracts and the possible compensation to be paid to the two companies would be a way of protecting CFM, EMOSE and HCB, the public companies that will inject 120 million dollars into LAM, as the carrier’s new shareholders”, he said.

He believes that a Commission of Inquiry is crucial so that the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and other entities may carry out a forensic audit of LAM’s accounts for the last 20 years.