8 January 2009
Maputo — Maputo prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the arrest of Orlando Come, the former general director of the Mozambican government's Data Processing Centre (CPD), his deputy, Manuel Vilanculos, and the CPD financial manager.
According to a Wednesday night report on the independent televisions station STV, the three were interrogated on Tuesday for several hours by staff of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC).
During the interrogation, the financial manager attempted to flee. He asked to leave the room to smoke a cigarette. The prosecutors granted the request - but he did not return. Police picked him up on Wednesday, by which time Come and Vilaculos were already incarcerated in the Maputo Civil Prison.
The GCCC had been investigating Come and his colleagues for some time, in connection with the alleged theft of CPD funds. In November 2007, the weekly paper "Magazine Independente" (MI) carried an article on the accusations of theft leveled against Come.
At that time, CPD workers had gone for two months without receiving their wages, and their trade union committee complained to Finance Minister Manuel Chang. When Chang sent the permanent secretary of his ministry, Paulo Manhique, to investigate, the CPD workers accused Come of ruinous mismanagement, and demanded that he be sacked.
They said that Come, his deputy and the finance manager has abused public money and were leading the CPD to the abyss. They said that Come, who had been at the head of the CPD for 20 years, had used the institution's money to import luxury cars. Their complaints were heeded, and Come lost his job in March 2008.
Come was also seconded to work as head of the computer department of the electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), the electoral branch of the Mozambican civil service. He was thus in charge of the computer software used in both the 1999 and 2004 general elections, which came under serious attack for lack of transparency. Come lost his STAE position in 2007.
Come's neighbours in the civil prison include former Interior Minister Almerino Manhenje, and the chairperson of the board of the Mozambican Airports Company (ADM), Diodino Cambaza, who were arrested on corruption charges in late 2008.
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