Taipo trial: Former minister claims that her actions were all authorised – AIM report

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Taipo trial: Former minister claims that her actions were all authorised – AIM report

4:37 CAT | 07 Apr 2022

File photo: Domingo

Mozambique’s former Labour Minister, Helena Taipo, insisted before the Maputo City Court on Wednesday that all the administrative acts she had practiced had been duly monitored by the competent state bodies.

Taipo and ten others face charges of embezzlement and other financial offences arising from the alleged theft of 113 million meticais (about 1.8 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the Ministry’s Directorate of Migrant Labour (DTM) in 2014-15.

Taipo, questioned by the court for the second day, claimed that the management of the Labour Ministry and its subordinate units was systematically monitored by the Administrative Tribunal (TA), the body that checks the legality of public expenditure, and no illegality was found in any of the acts that she had practiced.

During the ten years that she was Minister (2005-2015), “I was never warned that I was violating any procedures”, she said.

But evidence has already been presented that various contracts between the DTM and suppliers of goods and services did not receive the legally obligatory prior authorization by the TA.

Since there was no TA authorization, how was it that the DTM had been allowed to make the purchases? Taipo fell back on the same argument she had used on Tuesday – as Minister she only gave general authorisations. Operational details were in the hands of the DTM managers, and so the court should ask them why there was no TA authorization.

But some questions she simply refused to answer. Prosecutor Armando Paruque asked if she had been aware that the DTM advanced money to the South African mine labour recruitment company, TEBA, supposedly to pay returning miners their deferred wages. “I prefer not to answer that”, replied Taipo.

Tired of Taipo’s evasiveness, Paruque asked the court to request from the TA reports of the inspections of the DTM it had carried out while Taipo was Minister. These reports should show whether the DTM had indeed submitted contracts to the TA for prior authorization.

Taipo’s defence lawyer objected to the request. The judge, Ivandra Uamusse, said she will take a decision on the matter in the next few days.

Uamusse adjourned the trial until next Tuesday when the former National Director of Migrant Labour, Anastacia Zitha, believed to have played a key role in the illicit scheme, will be questioned.

Source: AIM