Third-largest Mozambican political party asks government whether or not it will pay hidden debts

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Third-largest Mozambican political party asks government whether or not it will pay hidden debts

2:20 CAT | 12 Mar 2019

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The Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM), Mozambique’s third-largest political party, is to ask the government whether or not it intends to pay the creditors of the so-called ‘hidden debts’ in the face of accusations that the money was diverted to pay bribes. The question is registered in parliamentary requests for information.

The Mozambican executive will appear in the Assembly of the Republic on Wednesday to respond to requests for information from the three parliamentary benches, the content of which was announced yesterday in Maputo.

“Given the news that has been circulating in the national and international press about the distribution of bribes and overbilling, the Mozambican people want to know if the Government will continue the process of restructuring illegal debts valued at US$2.2 billion and if the country will pay them,” the request for information to the government formulated by the MDM bench reads.

For the MDM, it is becoming more clear that the debt contracted did not aim at either the security of national waters, or the capture of tuna.

Accusations by the US justice system and the Mozambican public prosecutor’s office and the resulting detentions related to the case of hidden debts support suspicions that the money fuelled a web of internal and international corruption, the MDM continues.

Eleven people are currently being detained in Mozambique at the request of the Attorney General’s Office on suspicion of having received bribes in the course of contracting debts of more than two billion Euros by the previous Mozambican government.

Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang was detained in South Africa on 29 December last year under an extradition request issued by a US court for his alleged role in the case.

The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the main opposition party, says it will ask the executive about the alleged shooting of five citizens living in Gorongosa National Park, in the centre of the country, by the park rangers on February 16.

“Renamo’s parliamentary group wants to know the real motivations for the excessive use of force against those helpless compatriots and native residents,” the written request reads.

The ruling party of the Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo) will ask the government about the impact and response to the natural disasters that affect the country in the present rainy season.

“Frelimo’s parliamentary group asks the government for information on the impact of these phenomena, the response measures it implements to mitigate its effect, restore destroyed infrastructure and contain erosion,” the ruling party’s question reads.

Source: Lusa