Maputo — The Chief of Staff of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM), Admiral Joaquim Mangrasse, has ordered an immediate halt to training courses for new recruits to the FADM, because of suspicions of corruption and fraud, reports Wednesday's issue of the independent newssheet "Carta de Mocambique".

This affects a group of over 500 recruits who had been training since April in the Practical Army School at Manhica, about 70 kilometres north of Maputo. They were all told to go homes and wait for a new recruitment drive.

According to military sources cited by the paper the recruitment process through which they had been selected was fraudulent, and an internal investigation presented evidence of this to Mangrasse.

It is feared that fraudulent procedures were also used to select recruits for other training centres.

New recruitment processes have been opened, and this time the recruits will be carefully selected. The training is expected to restart in a few days.

This follows a similar problem with police recruitment. On Tuesday, at a ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the foundation of the Mozambique Republic Police (PRM), the General Commander of the police, Bernadino Rafael, announced the expulsion of 200 trainees who did not have the academic qualifications required to join the police. Some even had problems in writing.

"Unfortunately the trainees expelled escaped on the first inspection", said Rafael. "But on re-inspection, these situations were detected, and those involved had to return to their home provinces".