The Mozambican non-governmental organization (NGO) Center for Public Integrity accused the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD) of mismanagement practices and corruption, detailing cases of embezzlement that jeopardize the entity’s performance.
“Government assistance to the victims of the floods in Maputo is well below demand. This is partly a reflection of the mismanagement and corruption with the funds received by INGD to help those in need,” said the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), in an analysis and investigation. document.
The administrators of state agencies follow practices such as direct adjustments for cases not provided for by law and overbilling, the text reads.
The CIP said that between August 2022 and February 2023 it found “remarkable evidence of corruption in the management of funds intended to support the victims of the disaster in the country.”
In four cases of public procurement in the INGD, two registered undue expenses worth 196 million meticals (about three million euros), he accused.
“The cases analyzed involve various aspects, from the deviation of the application and the violation of public procurement procedures to public works contracts and the acquisition of vehicles, using the Disaster Management Fund,” he detailed in the text.
Evidence of fraudulent inflation of costs was also detected in the contracting of humanitarian aid transport services and the performance of “dubious” works in the offices of the secretariat of the Risk Management and Resilience Program in Maputo.
The NGO also gave the example of the purchase of six all-terrain vehicles for the INGD leaders, for 18 million meticals (266 thousand euros), through a direct agreement, in 2020.
Mention is also made of the disbursement of 13 million meticals (192,000 euros) for the construction of water and sanitation infrastructure, in the province of Nampula, without a public tender.
The CIP recalls that the World Bank recently froze the disbursement of a specific envelope of five million dollars (4.7 million euros) to the FGD (Disaster Management Fund) and demanded the reimbursement of 32.5 million meticals (480 thousand euros), “until INGD presents an acceptable action plan to guarantee the reinforcement of its contracting system”.
A World Bank source told Lusa that “the reservations that the World Bank had in relation to the procedures followed in the management of resources for humanitarian assistance were corrected and overcome.”
The same source declined to go into details, since it was about situations “in the sphere of strictly internal relations between the bank and the Government.”
Contacted by Lusa, in view of the CIP document, INGD referred its position to the statements of the Mozambican Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, who this Wednesday generally denied the existence of irregularities in the management of resources allocated to humanitarian assistance.
“This issue has been resolved. The World Bank itself has already explained it” and “there is no dispute,” Maleiane told reporters.
On Wednesday, the main opposition party, the National Resistance of Mozambique (Renamo), accused the INGD of running a “corruption machine” that takes advantage of natural disasters and international donations to “feed the insatiable appetites” of elites linked to to the power.
Source: TSF
