Re-employment of Cambaza “incomprehensible” – AIM report

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Re-employment of Cambaza “incomprehensible” – AIM report

7:51 CAT | 22 May 2017

File photo of Maputo airport

The re-employment of a convicted embezzler in the same company from which he stole large sums is “incomprehensible”, declared Alfredo Gamito, spokesperson for the Central Public Ethics Commission (CCEP), a body set up under Mozambique’s Law on Public Probity.

The man in question is Diodino Cambaza, the former chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Mozambican Airports Company (ADM) who was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in February 2010 for stealing 54 million meticais (about 857,000 US dollars at current exchange rates, but worth much more in 2010) from the company.

He was charged with embezzlement, false declarations, making undue payments, and abuse of his office, and the Maputo City Court sentenced him to 22 years imprisonment, which was reduced to 12 years on appeal. He was released on parole last year, after serving half his sentence.

Cambaza asked for a job at ADM, and the Transport Ministry gave the green light for his re-employment. So ADM found a position for him as an adviser.

According to a report in the latest issue of the independent weekly “Savana”, the matter was discussed by the CCEP last week, and an outcome of this discussion will shortly be announced.

Gamito, who is a former Minister of State Administration, told “Savana” he found ADM’s decision to re-employ Cambaza “incomprehensible”, and that he should have been barred from any job in the company, in the light of the Penal Code in force at the time of his trial.

He has, however, been re-employed under provisions of the new Penal Code, approved by parliament in 2014. An article in the code says that a prison term does not imply the loss of “any civil, professional or political rights”. This is certainly true, but the Penal Code does not impose any obligation on ADM to give Cambaza a job, or to create a position especially for him.

The CCEP has not yet reached any definite conclusion on the case since it needs to analyse written opinions from the Attorney-General’s Office, from the Transport Ministry and from ADM itself.

Source: AIM