Signing agreements is not sufficient to curb corruption: Mozambique

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Signing agreements is not sufficient to curb corruption: Mozambique

12:24 CAT | 23 Feb 2016

Researcher José Jaime Macuane says government tenders for the procurement of goods and services are one of the critical areas in monitoring and curbing corruption, and just signing international anti-corruption conventions is not enough. It is necessary to disseminate the information and implement those conventions.

Such is the focus of a new report by the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), which says the lack of private sector exposure to international anti-corruption standards allows corrupt practice to flourish in Mozambique business.

In the report, the CIP emphasizes that the public sector in Mozambique has signed and ratified major international and regional anti-corruption conventions, and strives to incorporate them within its legal framework.

However, it concluded that “in the business sector, local companies do not have the same exposure, encouragement and ability to adopt policies and practices in line with international standards”.

The CIP says that the application is problematic “because of the low implementation capacity of anti-corruption laws and weak incentives to promote clean business transactions”.

In Mozambique, the bribery of pubic officials, money laundering and the undue use of influence are common, and public opinion indicates that the persistence of these practices indicates a lack of interest on the authorities behalf.

“Laws, obviously, do not apply themselves,” says José Macuane, member of the CIP report research team.

Macuane says it is imperative to have “a more reliable system of reducing illegal practices that mean only a few companies have contracts with the state”.

The report is also the occasion for the CIP and Transparency International launching a National Business Integrity Agenda initiative in Mozambique, which aims to help reduce corruption in the private sector.

“The only way to clean up the business environment is through collective action,” CIP director Adriano Nuvunga said in a statement, a clear allusion to the need for government, the business sector and civil society to join forces to ensure integrity.

Macuane adds that the press, which in his view does not yet systematically expose business corruption, must develop the strong technical skills needed to do so.

Source: Voa Portugues