Taipo trail: Migrant Labour Directorate avoided public tenders – AIM report

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Taipo trail: Migrant Labour Directorate avoided public tenders – AIM report

6:55 CAT | 28 Mar 2022

File photo: Domingo

The management of the Migrant Labour Directorate (DTM) in the Mozambican Labour Ministry opted for direct purchasing of goods and services, rather than public tenders, in order to facilitate theft of the DTM’s funds.

The former head of the DTM finance department, Jose Monjane, confirmed the use of direct purchasing on Tuesday when he testified before the Maputo City Court.

He is one of 11 people, of whom the most prominent is former Labour Minister Helena Taipo, who are on trial for the alleged theft of 113 million meticais (about 1.8 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the DTM. This is money that should have benefitted migrant mineworkers, their dependents and the Mozambican state.

Awarding contracts without public tenders made it possible to forge contracts with carefully chosen companies. The contracts were just a facade for issuing invoices and receipts that, at first sight, seemed for legitimate purposes, but were in reality a means of defrauding the DTM.

The prosecution believes that Monjane was one of the brains behind the fraudulent scheme along with the then National Director of Migrant Labour, Anastacia Zitha, and Taipo herself.

All state bodies should have an Acquisitions Management Unit (UGEA) to deal with public tenders. But no such body existed in the DTM.

Furthermore. Monjane added, the DTM’s internal accounts, including the payment of miners’ wages and pensions, and the payment of fees for hiring foreign labour, are not registered in e-SISTAFE – the electronic financial management system, used by the public accounts of the Mozambican state.

“The DTM used direct purchases to acquire goods and services, and it did so for several reasons”, Monjane told the court. “The accounts of the directorate were not registered in the Treasury’s payments system”.

So the DTM signed contracts with private companies the only purpose of which seemed be to drain money from the State.

The DTM also transferred 69 million meticais to the South African mine labour recruitment agency, TEBA, via various banks. The money was supposed to pay wages to miners who had returned to the southern provinces of Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane.

When TEBA did not have enough money, Monjane claimed, the DTM was obliged to intervene so that the miners would receive their wages and to avoid any protest demonstrations. This argument flatly contradicts bank statements and other documents in the court records which show that TEBA was not short of money.

TEBA had enough money because it received the wages from the mines themselves, in accordance with the agreements on mine labour signed with the Mozambican authorities.

The trial was adjourned until Monday, when the interrogation of Monjane will continue.

Source: AIM