24 March 2004
Maputo — A senior official in the Mozambican Education Ministry has denied that the Ministry failed to account properly for Swedish aid money - but the Swedish authorities are demanding that the money be repaid.
According to a report in the respected Norwegian magazine "Development Today",dated 15 March, the Ministry has already agreed in principle to refund 1.7 million Swedish crowns used for scholarships.
The demand that the money be refunded followed an audit carried out for SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency) by the international accountancy firm, Ernst & Young.
The permanent secretary of the Ministry, Zefanias Muhate, seemed unaware of the demand for repayment. At least he made no mention of it in an interview published on the front page of Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
Muhate complained that Ernst & Young did not comply with the terms of reference for its audit. He said that once the auditors had done their work in Mozambique, they had gone straight to Stockholm, and published their conclusions without consulting the Ministry in order to obtain "the necessary clarification".
He complained that the Ministry only received a copy of the report on 13 February, by which time its conclusions had already been widely divulged in Sweden.
"We don't recognise the report and we don't know why the terms of reference were not complied with", said Muhate.
The report concerns a total of slightly more than 108 million crowns used in the period 2000-2003. The auditors' report, Muhate said, made it appear that some 7.76 million crowns could not be accounted for properly.
Muhate disputes this, claiming that all the funds used are properly justified, and were even managed with technical assistance from a Swedish firm, Swedec, which was paid 10,000 dollars a month for its services.
"All the funds used have been justified and SIDA has already told us that the reply we gave to the report is satisfactory.
SIDA gave a positive declaration on the use of funds and we are advancing towards signing a new agreement".
The most polemical issue is the use of Swedish-funded scholarships by high-ranking officials, including Education Minister Alcido Nguenha, for their relatives. This accusation was published by the weekly paper "Savana" earlier this month: "Savana" said scholarships had gone to Nguenha's brother and to two of his children. Nguenha has not issued a denial.
Muhate declared "These scholarships are given according to academic merit, and people have to ask for them. We don't have any dispatch signed by the Minister granting scholarships to his children, or that they are using SIDA funds to this end. In any case, the children of Ministry of Education officials are citizens, and they cannot be prejudiced just because of who their fathers are".
Muhate's statements are quite incompatible with the report in "Development Today", which cites Magnus Lindell, Head of Development Cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Maputo.
The Ernst & Young report revealed 1.7 million crowns spent on 33 scholarships. 80 per cent of the scholarships went to people not working for the Ministry, including Nguenha's relatives.
Perhaps most serious of all is that the agreement with Sweden does not mention scholarships. "The Ministry has used the funds for a purpose that is not mentioned in the agreement with Sweden", Lindell said. "The money has to be refunded". He told the magazine that when he met with Ministry representatives, they agreed that the money should be returned.
"Development Today" added that the audit also reviewed 20 per cent of the funds for the Ministry's Institutional Development programme and found that 46 per cent of the expenditure (3.8 million crowns) had insufficient documentation.
There had also been no tenders, in violation of procurement regulations.
The missing documentation mainly refers to advances paid to the provinces. The Ministry has told the Swedes that it is trying to track down the necessary documents.
But Lindell insisted that Sweden will demand refunds for all transactions not supported by proper documentation.
Lindell said that further investigation is needed to clarify all uncertainties. SIDA, he added, will discuss with the auditors "where the risk is highest", before carrying out the new review.
"I think Mozambique realises that the moment of truth is here. The authorities have to show strong political will to put in place a control system that is working," Lindell told the magazine.
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