24 June 2009
Maputo — A district administrator in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia has been suspended after a suspiciously large sum of money was found in his bank account, reports Wednesday's issue of the weekly paper "Magazine Independent" (MI).
During a visit in May to Zambezia, President Armando Guebuza heard complaints from local residents about the behaviour of the administrator of Ile district, Viegas Taula. Investigations were made, and this week the provincial governor, Carvalho Muaria, confirmed to MI that Taula has been suspended.
The paper adds that it learnt from other source that a government inspection team discovered that Taula had two million meticais (over 75,000 US dollars) in his bank accounts. The accounts have been frozen until Taula can account for this money.
Taula has been district administrator for two years, and prior to that was head of an administrative post in Gurue district. While these jobs are not badly paid by Mozambican standards, it is doubtful that they can account for the sums mentioned in the report.
Among the accusations made against Taula, in Guebuza's presence, was that he mismanaged the funds sent to Ile under the Local Initiative Investment Budget (OIIL). These funds are supposed to be spent on projects to increase food security and create jobs. It was claimed that the money was being channeled to Taula's friends, and that he was skimming some off himself.
At the end of his visit to Ile, Guebuza said he was concerned by what he had heard. "It seems that in this district the government is very distant from the population", he remarked.
The central government, he added, would have to take measures to calm the local population. It seems that Guebuza has carried out this promise.
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