Mozambique: Opposition slam government over €76M bank loan for public security project

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Mozambique: Opposition slam government over €76M bank loan for public security project

4:24 CAT | 29 Sep 2021

File photo: Lusa

Renamo, the main opposition party in Mozambique, on Wednesday criticised the government’s approval of a 76 million-euro credit agreement for public security information and management, demanding a debate on the issue in parliament.

“As this is a project linked to security, which falls by parachute and without prior discussion in parliament, conditions are in place to conclude that it is another secret and macabre plan, whose objectives are obscure and certainly the beneficiaries will be the same as always,” Renamo spokesman, José Manteigas, said at a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Maputo.

The issue is an announcement made last week by cabinet spokesman, Filimão Suaze, moments after the 32nd cabinet session in Maputo, announcing the approval of a resolution ratifying a credit agreement between the government and the Korea Eximbank, worth US$88.7 million (76 million euros).

According to Renamo, the decision, which was allegedly neither justified nor detailed, comes in a “totally adverse context”, given that, according to the party, it is not a priority area and the country’s debt “stock” has reached unsustainable levels.

“Why is debt service being increased for areas that are not profitable and not relevant from an economic and social point of view?”, Renamo questioned, noting that the country’s economic growth projections for 2021 had been revised downwards when the budget law was considered.

“Taking advantage of the position of ruler to, at its pleasure, force Mozambicans to pay debts that are of unknown origin and purpose, constitutes dictatorship and is characteristic of an illegitimate, self-centred government serving hidden interests,” the Renamo spokesman said.

The main opposition party recalled that between 2012 and 2014 the government created a project called the national information interception command, installing surveillance cameras and devices in the cities of Maputo and Matola, in the south of the country.

According to Renamo, the project, managed from the Casa Militar, cost nearly $140 million (120 million euros) and one of the main objectives was to strengthen security in the face of the wave of kidnappings in the country, but never showed results.

“The implementation more than eight years ago of such a public security system in practice is non-existent, given that crimes of abduction and kidnapping have flourished in the last 10 years,” José Manteigas stressed, adding that the video surveillance project took place in the same period when the hidden debts were contracted, which also had security issues as a protest and were secretly endorsed by the Frelimo government without the knowledge of parliament and the Administrative Court.

The hidden debts, worth around US$2.7 billion (€2.2 billion), were contracted between 2013 and 2014 from the British subsidiaries of investment banks Credit Suisse and VTB by Mozambican state companies Proindicus, Ematum and MAM.

Source: Lusa