The Mozambican government has submitted to parliament a proposal to revise the Public Probity Law, which obliges police officers, bailiffs and prison guards to declare their income and assets.
The proposal, consulted today by Lusa, imposes the obligation to declare income and assets on traffic police officers, municipal police officers, the president and officials of the Tax Authority, members of the National Criminal Investigation Service, members of the National Migration Service, prison guards and border guard police.
Also subject to the same duty are officials working at border crossings, officials from the National Road Transport Institute, public servants in the areas of conservation and forest rangers, officials from registry offices and notary offices and bailiffs and bailiffs’ assistants.
The proposal imposes the same duty on members of management and procurement units, receivers, treasurers, accountants and others responsible, in law or in fact, for the collection, safekeeping or administration of public money, and auditors and inspectors at all levels.
The document states that the declaration “must contain in itemised form all the elements that allow an accurate assessment of the assets and income of the declarant and their spouse, minor children and legal dependents”.
The proposal to revise the Public Probity Law maintains the current obligation to declare income and assets for holders or members of political bodies, judicial magistrates and members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, judges advising the Constitutional Council, the Ombudsman and heads of the State Information and Security Service.
Public servants in positions or functions on commission, by election, appointment, contract or any other form of investiture or link, managers, administrators, coordinators and project managers at all levels to be implemented in state bodies are also obliged to declare their income and assets.
The declaration must be made at the Attorney General’s Office, provincial prosecutors’ offices and district prosecutors’ offices for the entities corresponding to each of these levels and at the Administrative Court for public prosecutors.
The declaration must be made at the beginning of the exercise of the office or function and at the end of it.
The government bases the proposal to revise the Public Probity Law on the argument that “the exercise of functions in public administration requires probity and respect for ethics, especially in the management of public affairs”.
“The aim of the asset declaration system is to ensure that all public managers who exercise functions or positions in service commission, managers and officials declare their assets, with a view to guaranteeing control of their asset development and preventing acts of harm to the state or the provision of poor service, due to situations of conflict of interest, thus preventing corruption,” reads the document.
The proposal has yet to be debated by the Mozambican Parliament, which has the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party in the majority.
Lusa
