Maputo — Mozambican Foreign Minister Oldemiro Baloi on Tuesday recognised that there is currently "a certain friction" between the government and the group of 19 donors and funding agencies who provide direct support to the state budget.

These donors, known as the Programme Aid Partners (PAPs) or the G-19, are effectively on strike. They have not disbursed any budget support since mid-December, but have given no public explanation for why they have turned off the taps.

Speaking on the Radio Mozambique programme "Café da Manha", Baloi said that the current tensions were, in reality, with some, and not all, the PAPs. "Fortunately, for us the G-19 is not a very homogenous group", he said.

And despite the friction, he added, it would be incorrect to describe the relationship between any of the G-19 and the Mozambican government as "bad".

Some of the members of the group still had "excellent" relations with Mozambique, while for the others, the relationship could be described as "simply good". Baloi cited in particular last week's firm commitment to budget support given by Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, during his working visit to Mozambique

Baloi regarded this as showing that, among the G-19, there are those who believe that Mozambique is on the right path, and that there is no good reason for current frictions. He thought there were no grounds for pessimism about the long term relationship between Mozambique and its partners.

According to the well-informed "Mozambique Political Process Bulletin", published by the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), and edited by British journalist Joseph Hanlon, the donors "are demanding promises from government for action this year on electoral reform, corruption and conflict of interest, and on the growing role of the Frelimo party inside tPf/ (795)he state apparatus".

Hanlon notes that "The G19 budget support group is being extremely secretive, refusing even off-the-record briefings, claiming they do not want to be seen to be putting pressure on government. In practice donors seem to be searching for a minimum promise from government which will provide a face-saving solution, and allow the G19 to stay together".

Last May, the G-19 promised 472 million dollars in budget support for 2010. The government was expecting 175 million of that to be disbursed in January. Finance Minister Manuel Chang has warned that, if the donor funds are not released by April, then the government may have to rewrite the 2010 budget.Pf/ (795)

The donors have regularly, over many years, expressed concerns about corruption - but it is ironic that they should cut off funds at the very moment that a former minister was on trial on corruption charges. And when the court delivered its verdict, on 27 February, former Transport Minister Antonio Munguambe was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.

In fact, ever since President Armando Guebuza sacked the ineffective Joaquim Madeira as Attorney-General, replacing him with Augusto Paulino, the battle against corruption has been dramatically stepped up. The Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC), which had previously never managed to bring any cases to court, was reorganized, and there were subsequently a series of high profile arrests - including not only Munguambe and the chairperson of the Airport company (ADM), Diodino Cambaza, but also former Interior Minister Almerino Manhenje, and the former head of the government computer services, Orlando Come. The donors, however, seem to have paid little attention to this.

As for electoral reform, nobody doubts that there are serious problems with the current electoral legislation, and all three forces represented in parliament agree that it should be rewritten.

The sudden stress on electoral legislation is an example of the lack of donor memory. Hanlon recalls that "in 2007 donors told me that elections were not part of the G19 remit because they were not in the memorandum of understanding with the government. And donors did not replace staff linked to elections when they finished their terms in Maputo. So government is annoyed that having not played a constructive role earlier, donors suddenly made angry public statements just before the election".

Hanlon adds that the donors want the government, and not parliament, to present new draft election laws. But since the laws have to be voted on by parliament anyway, this is a procedure which could lengthen the process of passing new laws, and is likely to annoy parliamentarians who regard the electoral legislation as their baby and not the executives.

Hanlon notes that "Donor officials in Maputo have a strong vested interest in keeping the money flowing, and Mozambique clearly needs the cash. So there is a mutual interest in finding some kind of face-saying agreement with vague promises of action".