Mozambique: Vigorous actions needed to fight corruption

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Vigorous actions needed to fight corruption

8:49 CAT | 26 Nov 2021

Photo: O País

Mozambican Attorney-General, Beatriz Buchili, on Wednesday called for vigorous actions to fight against corruption which, she warned, was endangering the sovereignty of the state.

She was speaking in the central city of Quelimane, where she was attending a national meeting of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC).

Cited by the independent daily “O Pais”, Buchili said that all those involved in acts of corruption must be brought to trial to answer for their acts. But for that to happen, she stressed, there must be an end to impunity, the public prosecutor’s office must act more speedily, and bolder measures must be taken to recover assets from the hands of corrupt officials.

“Criminals cannot remain unpunished”, she stressed. “They must be tried and sentenced, and the State must be compensated for the losses it has suffered. We must do all in our power to ensure that cases are heard quickly, so that the corrupt are held responsible for what they have done”.

The Attorney-General said that today prosecutors are challenged to be implacable towards those who have embarked upon corruption, damaging social and economic development and the sovereignty of the State “given the links of corruption with terrorism, trafficking in people and in drugs, illegal immigration and money laundering”.

“So we need to improve our strategy for intervention”, she insisted. “That involves assessing the strategy we have been following, and the need to expand the GCCC across the country”. It also included better mechanisms for anti-corruption focal points in the provinces where provincial branches of the GCCC have not yet been set up.

With the establishment of a provincial GCCC office in Zambezia, there remain five provinces without anti-corruption offices – namely Cabo Delgado. Niassa, Manica, Gaza and Maputo City.

Source: AIM