Maputo — All is not well with the accounts of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and on Wednesday the Assembly's governing board, the Standing Commission agreed to send the accounts to the Administrative Tribunal, the body that checks the legality of public expenditure, to look into alleged irregularities in parliamentary spending.

The Commission's spokesperson, Mateus Katupha, said the Commission had debated the accounts presented by the parliament's Consultative Administration Board.

The discussion identified weaknesses in the accounts, which Katupha attributed to inexperience. "This is the first time that the organic law on the Assembly of the Republic, as regards its administration, has been put into practice", he said.

The "anomalies" noted include problems with the suppliers of goods and services to the Assembly, some of whom appear to be overcharging.

"The prices they charge are very high, and the Assembly is not obtaining any benefits from their services", declare Katupha.

He specifically mentioned the cost of the food and drink supplied for the coffee breaks during the Assembly's plenary sessions.

Katupha admitted that procurement by the Assembly had often been unregulated, with the result that some of the goods purchased had been "too expensive". He thought it urgent to adopt rules governing the Assembly's future procurement.

He denied general accusations of "excessive expenditure", but admitted that it would have been cheaper to buy rather than hire vehicles for members of the Permanent Commission.

The Standing Commission also analysed the ruling from the Constitutional Council on an appeal from the former rebel movement Renamo, which was trying to halt next month's planned introduction of new banknotes and coins, on the grounds that the government's currency reform is unconstitutional.

The reform consists in striking the last three digits off the currency. This is a simple mathematical operation - division by 1,000 - so that the current 1,000 metical coin will become one metical, and the largest current banknote, for 500,000 meticais, will be worth 500 new meticais.

There could not have been much to discuss on the Commission, since the Constitutional Council simply threw out the Renamo appeal, and declared that dividing by 1,000 is neither unconstitutional nor illegal.

Thus the currency reform will go ahead, as planned, on 1 July.