Mozambique’s Administrative Court (TA) has sentenced several public managers to return money for embezzlement and misapplication of funds intended to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, the institution said, without mentioning amounts
“Many managers who transgressed the norms were obliged to return the money. It is not enough to say that they made application errors, it is necessary to repair the damage,” said Jeremias Zuande, from the Accounts and Audit Department of the TA, quoted today by Notícias, the main Mozambican daily.
Read also: Mozambique approves tough anti-terror bill
Those targeted committed offenses such as under-invoicing, withdrawal of funds without supporting documents, improper direct awards, application detour and improper payments, Zuande added. The offenses caused a loss of about two billion meticais (more than 31 million euros), he said. He noted that the sanctions were applied after audits were conducted on 75 percent of the state institutions that received funds for the fight against Covid-19.
Last week, a source from the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Mozambique told Lusa that the institution delivered to the Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC) the report that detected irregularities in the funds used in the fight against the pandemic.
Read also: Oil companies should mitigate environmental damage in Mozambique
“Within the framework of inter-institutional collaboration, the report was made available to the GCCC,” the source said, without giving further details. The Mozambican government had already acknowledged that about 11 percent of donor money for Mozambique to face Covid-19 in 2020 was used irregularly. At issue is the equivalent of about 30 million euros of the total 285 million euros in donations used by the Mozambican state in 2020.
The donor fund for Mozambique’s response plan to Covid-19 included contributions from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB), Islamic Development Bank, World Bank, European Union (EU), United States of America and Global Fund.
