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What’s Going to Change in INAE?

What’s Going to Change in INAE?

The pandemic has surprised everyone. It changed the way of being and being in society. It changed the rules of the game in the various spheres of institutional functioning. It changed the attitude of the INAE. Two years of a previously unthinkable experience brought a lot of new things, which are worth exploring here.

Rita Freitas, inspector-general of the National Inspection of Economic Activities (INAE), spoke to Diário Económico and 360 Mozambique about the whole process.

Two years have passed since Mozambique, and the world in general, was affected by the covid-19 pandemic. How does the National Inspection of Economic Activities (INAE) assess the inspection work to ensure compliance with the measures adopted by the Government to contain the spread of the virus during that period?

At the end of March 2020, the Country, as others in the world, was ravaged by the covid-19 pandemic and the Government had to take measures in order to define what should be done to avoid being targets of contamination as was already happening in other countries. In this sense, INAE was called upon to redouble its efforts to monitor the measures defined by the Government. We had several decrees over the two years defining the measures to minimise the level of contamination in national terms.

INAE had to take its activity plan and adjust it to the work required for the pandemic. We redoubled our efforts to monitor the measures. The health sector was in the field to monitor health issues and INAE was also there to ensure that the measures set out by the Government were met as far as all economic activity was concerned.

So we did the work at the level of all economic activities, including establishments, something that was not the competence of INAE. We inspect all establishments of economic activities in the private sector and not those in the public sector. But, since there were measures defined by the Government that should be monitored (I speak of education), INAE was called to do a job to verify if the conditions had been created to guarantee that they had water and soap at the entrance of the educational establishments, as well as to see if the toilets were in the right conditions.

So INAE was asked to ensure that the public and private educational establishments at a national level complied with the measures, and many of them did not have the conditions to do so. Therefore, there was a job that had to be done and INAE, in this process of monitoring the covid-19 measures, was not alone, we formed joint teams with the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) and with the municipal police that supported in the day-to-day work.

“It was a period of a lot of learning, since we had to learn how to change our way of being and being in the inspection work”

And we managed to arrive at some time when we realised that the economic agents, in general, were already complying with the measures issued by the Government.

During this period we had some aggressions during the inspection work, but thank God everyone got well. In any case, we learnt a lot because during this period we discovered that many establishments were operating with improper licences and others without documentation, let alone any inspections.

In general, it was a period of great learning, since we had to learn how to change our way of being and being in the inspection work and it helped in a certain way to make a survey of the critical aspects and those that need to be improved during our activity.

What were the greatest challenges encountered by INAE in enforcing these measures?

One of the major problems that we encountered in monitoring the covid-19 measures was more in the night time period, since during the day the measures were more or less taken care of. We had many problems in fulfilling the preventive measures of covid-19 and not only that, the most aggravating was the closing time of the establishments.

There were several times when closing times of the establishments were defined and the economic agents were used to not complying with the timetable. Then, we found that many establishments of economic activity do not have working hours approved by the competent entity, in this case which is the Directorate of Labour, therefore, if it has not defined the closing hours, we could hardly know which hours are authorized to work, because each case is a case, not all establishments have the same hours, it depends on the type of establishment and its location.

“We had a lot of problems in complying with covid-19 prevention measures and the closing hours of establishments”

Another big problem was the bars, because right from the start, according to the covid-19 measures, it was defined that the discos and bars should be closed.

What happened is that the discotheques and bars were closed, but they moved to other places, to residences, farms, backyards, terraces and basements, so it was a tough job that we had to carry out, even when the curfew was at 9 p.m., we found places operating clandestinely after 9 p.m. And this is where we had the most problems, because it was not easy to enter these places, and many of them were difficult to access.

Many times we had to resort to PRM colleagues to work together, especially at night time. Many catering establishments did not comply with the timetable, and would close their doors and stay inside.

What were the frequent problems observed by INAE?

During the period when it was forbidden to hold parties for weddings, anniversaries, etc, we always found some establishments with parties and with a high number of people. Even when the number that was permissible to be inside a certain gathering was defined, we found these irregularities, and we had to take measures, some of these establishments we suspended for one, two and three months, depending on the gravity.

If it was a repeat offence, we would penalise them, but if it was the first time, we would suspend them just for that moment and invite people to leave the premises and advise them to comply with the measures issued, since it was for the good of all.

And the measures defined by the Government helped a lot to mitigate the number of people contaminated and the number of deaths, but if we hadn’t done our work regularly, I believe we could have had a much worse situation.

So, in terms of problems, the most faced were these. But we also had problems with the little schools and the crèches that were also closed for a period like the bars and Botle Stores.

Here, parents had to leave their children to be able to go to work. And where did these children go? Logically, they went to the homes of the employees of the little schools, and these were the alternatives found by the parents to be able to leave their children. So, the residences were transformed into little schools, playgrounds and crèches which still exist today, even after the schools were opened.

I believe that the little schools today have a reduced number of students because many have found alternatives for lower costs because they don’t pay taxes, workers and other costs. And to dismantle this network of residences that function as bars and discotheques is not an easy task, but we are working and we have dismantled many even so, however, it is not easy to know where they are.

After this period, we set off for the new normal, but we do not put aside the fulfilment of some measures, they are not all, and they are for a matter of security. So, it was a period of a lot of work, we had to work day and night, because we received a lot of denunciations, complaints especially at night. We had to work towards minimising it.

“The measures were well defined and at the right time, but there was a bit of a lack of responsibility”

We had cases of infected people who, when they knew they were in this situation, instead of staying at home, made a point of going to discos and other entertainment establishments.

One of the cases was on 27 December 2020, in one of the bars in the city of Maputo, a place transformed into a disco, they turned off all the lights and there was a contaminated person inside. And what made us go to that establishment, was after we received information that someone who had tested positive for covid-19 was there, but even so he went to that gathering. When we arrived at the venue, the convivium was actually taking place outside of the established schedule. From that venue alone, 70 people were infected that night, some were South Africans and others Mozambicans, and then they travelled to Inhambane province and spread the virus even further. All this was due to the stubbornness of the youth.

In any case, I think the measures were well defined and at the right time, but there was a little lack of responsibility on our part as citizens.

There were many residences transformed into nightlife venues, where these houses were rented and parties were held there, without obeying the measures defined by the Government. This happened all over the country, first in the city of Maputo, then it moved to Matola and the rest of the country, so they kept trying to innovate as they were discovered.

How many establishments were targeted during that period?

We had planned, for these two years, to do around 50,000 inspections, taking into account the two years of covid-19. Normally we do about 20,000-25,000 inspections per year, but in the covid-19 period we ended up doing 72,000.

The work was carried out by multisectoral teams led by INAE in the provinces and at the level of the city and province of Maputo we worked with other institutions because we were all called to work to minimise the number of people contaminated and deaths. We had support from numerous institutions so it was possible to monitor and carry out these inspections.

The province with the highest number of inspections was Tete, with around 15,000, followed by Sofala, with 7,900, Maputo City with 8,000, Maputo Province with 8,000 and Inhambane with 6,000. These are the regions with the highest number of inspections.

In an initial phase, we had many problems with compliance in general, such as the lack of disinfectants, but after some time it improved. The most critical period was January and February 2021 where there were many deaths and the government had to redouble efforts. The decree of 13 January 2021 reinforced those measures. We had schools where the classrooms were very small.

Today, we have greatly improved the way we work thanks to the covid-19 period. In this post-covid moment we want to launch, knowing that many economic agents had problems in business or even closed for a while, an operation called “Kulaya” which in the changana language means to educate, to encourage economic agents to comply with the measures and regulations in force in the country by area of activities.

The first Kulaya will be for the area of commerce, then we will cover the others. We will start this programme and extend it to next year and we will work with economic agents and we will not only do the inspective work but also the educational work. If the agent has things in his establishment that he should not have, we will help him to put them away so that they do not look at INAE only as an institution that came to harm or was created by the Government to extort, because it was not with this intention that it was created.

The Government created INAE at the request of the private sector because it was tired of having many inspections every day and week. Until now some inspections have been done in order to unify the inspections so as not to tire the economic agent.

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Looking at the number you revealed, taking into account the working hours, what were the areas with most infractions?

The area with the most problems was the restaurant sector. It was the one that caused the most work because it did not comply with the measures, above all on the outskirts of the city. We managed to control the city centres, but we had great challenges with the peripheries.

Another problem is that the discotheques were closed, so the restaurants were transformed into discotheques, and nowadays almost all of them have music, bands and karaoke bars, regardless of their location. After 9pm only door licences operate, but these were suspended in the time of covid-19 because of curfew.

Today, open-door licences are being granted since the measures were relaxed. However, it turns out that some are being allocated to operate in places that are not appropriate and do not go according to the legislation. To have an open door licence and put loud music near a residential area, you need to have sound isolators because otherwise it disturbs the sleep of residents and violates their rights.

The big problems we have now post-covid are that once people have been locked in, they want to recover in a short time and they are finding alternatives to that and one of them is loud music to attract people and get more customers. So the discotheques that are duly authorised have lost their customers to the detriment of restaurants. Restaurants are opening in an unregulated manner in the backyards of houses, without proper authorisation.

Normally, they should first seek a change of Land Use and Allocation Right (DUAT) from residential to commercial activity, then submit the project and seek the license for that purpose. This Kulaya operation, in other phases will cover restoration as well, to help with those aspects.

The first area was the commercial one, because we feel that it needs a lot of help. There are shops that are too crowded, with no distance between products, there are badly placed products that create difficulties for citizens. We will work phase by phase with all the sectors.

Was the problem of working out of hours observed on a national level, or in some sectors?

It was at national level, and we continue to find these problems. The bottle stores, for example, have a specific legislation that is 54/2013 of 7 October that in its article 5 brings the prohibitions and at that moment they continue to act out of hours, in those cases, we penalize or suspend activities. And according to the regulations, you should not consume any product inside the bottle stores, either alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages.

To regulate all these situations requires an inspection and hard work in which INAE should not be alone, it relies on the police.

Where are we today, has the situation improved? Or not really?

I feel that there is still a lot of work to be done, the pandemic has helped us to identify a series of problems and the need for regulations and standards in place depending on the area of activities. In this way, Operation Kulaya is a response to one of the measures announced by the President to stimulate the economy.

There are still many serious problems, people consume alcoholic drinks on public roads and with loud music, so we count on the collaboration of all, including the citizens themselves. The consumer must know his rights and duties where to consume and where not to consume.

During these two years there have been reports of the emergence of several fake inspectors. What are your comments on this?

It is a critical situation, many people saw that INAE was on the field day and night and some saw the possibility of extorting economic agents by pretending to be INAE officials, they would call or use the SMS system posing as agents of a joint brigade and demand values to cover up irregularities. Some of them took photos of our profiles, registered documents with our data to pass themselves off as INAE officials. However, there were some employees who saw the possibility of extorting economic agents in exchange for not closing the establishment, so that there would be no penalties, unfortunately this happened, but this is also the economic agent’s fault, because many times it is the economic agent who entices INAE’s employees because they do not want to comply with the regulations.

The economic agent must collaborate by complying with the measures, standards, laws and regulations in force for his area of activity. If he knows and complies, he will not have to pay anyone. The most victimised in these cases are foreigners, sometimes because they have no documentation or are not up to date. If the economic agent denounces it and it’s not he who entices the INAE officials, I believe that the situation will be minimised.

Within INAE is there a strategy to be adopted in order to minimise these practices?

The Ministry of State Administration and Public Function, besides the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption having a strategy, we had the national inspectors’ meeting and one of the discussions we had was the strategy to fight corruption in the inspective area. In other words, we have the Central Office’s strategy to combat corruption, but now we are creating a specific one for the inspectorate, and we will adapt it to minimise the denunciations received, the opportunism on the part of the false inspectors to have found a way to make some money.

Text Hermenegildo Langa • Photo Mariano Silva

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