Members of five specialised committees of Mozambique’s Assembly of the Republic (AR) are concerned about the continuous growth of public spending on salaries and wages, despite the State not having significantly hired new staff in recent years, the Mozambican News Agency reported this Monday, 17 November.
According to the outlet, the concern was raised during a training session on effective interpretation of the General State Account (CGE), the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE), and other governance instruments. The initiative is taking place in the municipality of Matola and brings together members of the Committees on Constitutional Affairs, Human Rights and Legality (CACDHL), Plan and Budget (CPO), Social Affairs, Gender, Technology and Social Communication (CASGTCS), and Agriculture, Economy and Environment (CAEA).
The capacity-building programme is led by the Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO), a platform of civil society organisations that includes the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), N’weti, the Community Development Foundation (FDC) and ROSC, among other entities.
Speaking to the media, Cernilde Muchanga, Vice-President of the Plan and Budget Committee, acknowledged that although the State is hiring “an insignificant number” of new staff, the wage bill continues to rise in the PESOE 2026.
“We are hiring very little, yet salary and remuneration expenses continue to grow. It is important to understand what is contributing to the increase in this item,” she said.
The MP argued that the training will reinforce the technical capacity of parliamentarians to analyse the PESOE 2026 proposal, which will soon be discussed in plenary. “We want MPs to commit to exchanging experiences and finding the best way to participate in drafting opinions on public finances, recommending best practices to the Government, particularly in the education and health sectors,” she added.
For her part, Fátima Mimbire, FMO specialist in Public Finance and Extractive Industries, noted that although technically structured, the PESOE 2026 still has content gaps, particularly regarding the hiring of essential professionals.
“We see that there will be very low recruitment of teachers and nurses, at a time when the education system is expected to receive more than one million new children. The document shows inconsistencies, justified by budget constraints,” she pointed out.
The specialist further stressed that despite financial limitations, the Government must identify new internal sources of revenue, calling for a thorough audit of the extractive sector, where, according to her, “a lot of money continues to be lost and does not reach the State coffers.”
The training is being held in phases and will continue next Friday, 21 November, with the aim of strengthening Parliament’s budget oversight capacity and improving the quality of recommendations submitted to the Executive.
