Maputo — The Mozambican police have arrested three civil servants in the southern district of Chokwe on charges of stealing money from the Local Initiative Investment Budget (OIIL), by resorting to false identities, according to a report in Thursday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais".

Under the OIIL, each of the country's 128 districts has been allocated, since 2006, at least seven million meticais (about 255,000 US dollars) every year for projects to improve food security and create jobs. In December, the government announced that it is replacing the OIIL with a more formal District Development Fund (FDD).

Two of the three people arrested, Helena Chibalo and Pedro Manjate, work in the financial department of the Chokwe District Administration while the third, Beatriz Muchate, is employed at the District Directorate of Economic Services. They were detained on 27 January by the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), after an investigation ordered by the Chokwe District Attorney's Office.

According to "O Pais", the police claim that the three invented a "ghost beneficiary" in whose name a project was submitted for funding from the OIIL. The project was chosen for funding, and using fictitious documentation the three were able to open a bank account for the non-existent beneficiary.

OIIL funds supposedly for the project went into this account, and were then shared among the three. The police tried to locate the person in whose name the account had been opened, but without success.

"They can't tell us who the owner of the account is or where he lives", said a police source. "Nobody knows the owner of the account".

He added that the three detainees are collaborating in the continuing investigation, and that more officials are involved in the theft. He pointed out that transferring money to a phoney account is almost impossible without the connivance of somebody in the district permanent secretariat.

"Ghost projects" evade the normal approval procedure, in that they are not submitted to the District Consultative Council, the body that is supposed to vet all OIIL projects. But to bypass the Consultative Council requires the complicity of somebody well-placed in the district secretariat.

Over the past week, the police have, on the indication of the three detainees, been interrogating other people who may prove to be involved in the theft. It is not yet clear exactly how much money was stolen.