Kenya: Keep off the Makonde affairs, envoy tells imposters - report
File photo / President Flipe Nyusi
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi declared on Saturday that the audit report from the company Kroll Associates, investigating the security-related companies Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company), Proindicus and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), will help improve the transparency of the public accounts, and hold officials responsible for their actions.
Kroll delivered the audit report late on Friday to the Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR), which confirmed reception in a statement issued on Saturday morning.
Nyusi reacted to the delivery of the report in the coastal town of Angoche, at the end of a working visit to the northern province of Nampula. He told reporters he was sure that the PGR would be able to follow the subsequent legal procedures.
“We reaffirm the willingness of the Mozambican government to continue granting all necessary support for the conclusion of this process headed by the Attorney-General’s Office”, he said, adding his thanks for the Swedish authorities who had financed the audit.
Nyusi added that “the progress made in re-establishing effective peace, and the measures of macro-economic correction under way are determinant for restoring confidence among our partners and investors”.
Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, in 2013 and 2014, took out loans from European banks (mainly Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia) for over two billion US dollars. The loans were only possible because the previous government, under President Armando Guebuza, illegally guaranteed them. The guarantees broke the budget laws of 2013 and 2014, and violated a clause in the Mozambican constitution which states that only the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, can authorise such debts.
The three guarantees added 20 per cent to Mozambique’s total foreign debt, and pushed it to unsustainable levels.
Of the three loans, initially only the 850 million dollars lent to Ematum was public knowledge, because it took the form of a bond issue on the European market. The loans of 622 million dollars to Proindicus and 535 million to MAM were kept in deepest secrecy.
When the veil of secrecy was torn away by press reports in April 2016, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) accused the government of failing to disclose the country’s true debt situation. The IMF suspended its programme with Mozambique and other western partners followed suit. All 14 donors who used to provide direct support to the Mozambican state budget suspended their disbursements.
The IMF made it very clear that an independent, international audit of the three companies, establishing what had happened to the two billion dollars, was a requirement for restoring normal relations. The PGR, which was already investigating possible crimes committed in financing Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, hired Kroll, reputedly the top forensic auditing company in the world, to undertake the audit.
The IMF representative in Maputo, Ari Aisen, issued a short statement on Saturday saying “The IMF welcomes the delivery of the international forensic audit report on Ematum, Proindicus, and MAM to the Office of the Public Prosecutor of Mozambique. We look forward to the publication of a summary of the report toward the end of the month and, in due course, of the entire report.”
A similar statement came from the Swedish Embassy which said it “awaits the sharing of the summary of the report with the Mozambican public by the Attorney-General’s Office as soon as possible, and the subsequent publication of the whole report”.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.