The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) of Mozambique announced this Tuesday, March 28, that it has opened criminal proceedings against a fund coordinator at the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD).
“As there are strong indications of committing crimes of economic participation in business and abuse of office or function, criminal proceedings were opened against the servant, which ran terms in this office under process No. 118/11/GCCC/2022, having been charged on December 6, 2022,” says a note from the PGR distributed to the media.
The note from the Public Ministry also highlights the existence of another 2020 process against four other public servants, suspected of “fraudulently entering into” contracts for the supply of goods and services.
The accused “would come to take advantage of amounts above 100% of the value indicated in the contracts, that is, they seized the difference between the cost of acquisition by the supplier and the price paid by the state, which was shown inflated,” reads the note.
In February this year, the Mozambican non-governmental organization (NGO) Centro de Integridade Pública (CIP) accused the INGD of mismanagement and corruption, detailing cases of embezzlement that call into question the entity’s performance.
“Government assistance to flood victims in Maputo is far below demand. This is a reflection, in part, of mismanagement and corruption with the funds received by INGD to help the needy,” the CIP noted in an analysis and investigation document published that month.
The state agency’s managers follow practices such as direct adjustments for cases not provided for in the law and overbilling, the text read.
The CIP said that between August 2022 and February 2023 it found “notable evidence of corruption in the management of funds intended to support victims of disasters in the country.”
In four cases of public procurement in the INGD, two recorded undue spending worth 196 million meticais, the NGO charged.
Diário Económico