4 September 2009
Maputo — Between 1 January and 31 July this year, Mozambican courts tried and sentenced 31 cases of corruption, and the associated crime of theft of public funds.
According to statistics from the Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption (GCCC), a further 27 cases have trial dates fixed, and 45 suspects are under detention in connection with these cases. 10 of the detainees were caught red-handed by members of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) in the act of receiving money corruptly.
Out of 406 cases that entered the GCCC, 63 have resulted in charges, 256 are still under investigation, and 30 have been dropped for lack of evidence.
Under Mozambican legislation, officials who help themselves to state funds are charged with theft rather than with corruption. This is because the 2004 anti-corruption law defines corruption as something which always involves two parties - one requesting or demanding money, goods or some other benefit to which they are not entitled, and the other offering, or granting it. An individual who raids a safe or a bank account does not fall into this definition.
Nonetheless, the GCCC recognises that bodies of which Mozambique is a member, such as the Commonwealth, do regard the theft of public funds by public servants as an act of corruption. So the GCCC has used its resources to assist the provincial branches of the Public Prosecutor's Office in such cases, and has decided to include them in the statistics.
A provincial breakdown shows that 12 of the 31 cases tried in the first seven months of the year were in the central province of Sofala. Courts in Maputo province, Niassa and Inhambane dealt with four cases each. Three cases were tried in Maputo city and Zambezia, and one in Nampula, and none in the remaining four provinces (Cabo Delgado, Tete, Manica and Gaza).
Since Sofala is unlikely to be more corrupt than anywhere else in the country, these figures are a tribute to the greater efficiency of Sofala prosecutors and the Sofala provincial court.
The GCCC has not given details of the cases - but one of the cases reported in the media concerned the Niassa Provincial Director of Youth and Sport, Alfredo Ajana, sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in July, together with an accomplice, Vasco Ravia, for the theft of 1.2 million meticais (about 50,000 US dollars) from state coffers.
So far no-one of a higher rank that provincial director has yet been sentenced. But such cases may well be in the pipeline. Among those facing charges are a senior judge, and 20 high ranking state officials. Since these cases are still sub judice, their names are not yet available.
The figures seem to indicate a sharp improvement in the performance of the GCCC since Attorney-General Augusto Paulino appointed Ana Maria Gemo to head the office. Gemo is a highly experienced prosecutor, who handled the most complex case in Mozambican history, the trial in 2004 of 17 people accused of defrauding the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM) of the equivalent of 14 million US dollars.
Despite the higher public profile of her two predecessors, Isabel Rupia and Rafael Sebastiao, they were never able to bring corruption cases successfully to court.
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