Mozambique: Throw out the infiltrators, urges Attorney-General

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Mozambique: Throw out the infiltrators, urges Attorney-General

8:18 CAT | 16 Mar 2022

Photo: PNUD Moçambique

Mozambique’s Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) on Tuesday expressed concern that criminals have infiltrated the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).

At the opening in Maputo of a national meeting between the PGR and Sernic, Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili demanded the expulsion of infiltrators from Sernic as one of the measures needed for success in the fight against organized crime – notably against terrorism, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

“We are concerned at the infiltration of criminals among us”, she said. “We cannot continue to witness cases of armed robbery, kidnapping and rape perpetrated by individuals who have joined Sernic”.

In order to attain their goals and cover up their activities, she continued, criminals infiltrate state institutions to better control the investigations that are undertaken. “That’s the modus operandi of all organized crime”, Buchili said.

She guaranteed that the PGR will remain attentive to the situation of individuals who, in order to enter Sernic, use forged documents, such as identity cards, or academic certificates.

The time had come, she added, to take action to reverse the situation, by imposing new mechanisms to select cadres with greater rigour and control over entry qualifications. “We must revise our staff table and define specific and objective criteria for a correct selection of cadres, since this is a criminal investigation police of a scientific nature, and recruitment must obey specific norms”.

For his part, the Sernic General Director, Nelson Rego, recognized that his institution faces challenges which demand permanent updating of its technical and tactical capacity.

Sernic.sernic — *Photo: PNUD Moçambique*

He pledged to continue with “a far-reaching internal exercise seeking to identify and purge all those who collaborate with crime, and to improve the criteria for selecting candidates for Sernic”.