Mozambique: Nampula mayor will not cooperate with auditors – AIM report

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Mozambique: Nampula mayor will not cooperate with auditors – AIM report

10:24 CAT | 16 Nov 2020

“I didn’t receive anything from PERPU in 2018, or in 2019, so what are they going to audit?”, asked Vahanle. [Picture: Conselho Municipal de Nampula]

The mayor of the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, Paulo Vahanle, has threatened not to cooperate with a team from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, sent to audit the municipality’s accounts.

The audit is due to begin on Monday – but Vahanle called a press conference in Nampula on Friday to announce that he will not even receive the Ministry’s auditors.

Watch the press conference below.

Vahanle was elected in the municipal elections of 2018 on the ticket of the main opposition party, Renamo. Five of the seven municipalities in Nampula province are governed by Renamo mayors.

The audit is supposed to look at how the Nampula municipality has spent the money granted by the central government under the Strategic Programme for Reducing Urban Poverty (PERPU). But Vahanle claims that, since 2018, the Nampula Municipal Council has received no funds from PERPU, so that are no accounts to audit.

“I didn’t receive anything from PERPU in 2018, or in 2019, so what are they going to audit?”, asked Vahanle. “This is just harassment. If they want to arrest me, let them come and arrest me. We want to announce to the country and to the world what we in Renamo in Nampula city, and in the other municipalities we are governing, we don’t like what the government is doing”.

The mayor showed reporters the note he had received last Tuesday from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), and signed by the IGF provincial delegate, explaining that the audit is part of the IGF plan of activities.

He had replied to the Ministries of Economy and Finance and of State Administration, “telling them that I am not going to receive this brigade, before they present us with the results of the audit they were carrying out here during the last six months”.

Vahanle claimed that the IGF audit has political motivations, claiming that no such audits are held in municipalities that are run by the ruling Frelimo Party.

“Ever since I took office, every year we have had more than two audits”, he said. “This is disruptive and we are suffering intimidation. This is baseless harassment. It’s because we’re from Renamo”.

Vahanle said that members of his team had constantly been summoned to appear before the anti-corruption office – even though he had been weeding out dishonest municipal staff who had stolen government funds.

“We detected municipal staff who stole money, and turned them over to the relevant authorities”, he said. “Today this has been turned against the mayor and his team”.

Source: AIM / Conselho Municipal de Nampula