Mozambique: Senior officials still failing to declare assets

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Mozambique: Senior officials still failing to declare assets

5:04 CAT | 24 Nov 2020

Photo: TVM

Hundreds of senior state officials in the central Mozambican province of Sofala are still failing to declare their assets, an obligation imposed on them by the Law on Public Probity of 2012.

Speaking at a press conference in Beira on Monday, the spokesperson of the Sofala provincial attorney’s office, Joaquim Tomo, said that of the 5,000 people in the province who ought to declare their assets, 1,530 had still failed to do so.

Tomo warned that officials in this situation can be fined, and could face criminal proceedings. He said that to date 25 of these people have been fined: the fines are equivalent to two months of their wages.

The declaration of assets should be delivered on taking office, updated annually thereafter, with a final declaration made on leaving office. This is a mechanism which could be useful in preventing illicit enrichment.

Tomo said that the deadline for delivering this year’s declarations of assets expired on 31 March – but before fining anyone, the Provincial Attorney’s office notified those who had not delivered the declarations, giving them an extra ten days to regularise their situation.

“Even so, they did not come to our offices”, he added. So fines were now being imposed, with the money discounted from their wages by the Finance Ministry. Even so, the figures provided by Tomo suggest that the vast majority of the officials concerned in Sofala have not suffered any sanctions at all.

The Law on Public Probity covers the President of the Republic, all ministers and deputy ministers, all members of parliament, and of the provincial and municipal assemblies, provincial directors, head of department, district administrators, heads of administrative posts and localities, judges, prosecutors, and those in decision making positions in public companies, and in companies in which the state has a holding.

Source: AIM