Maputo — The Mozambican Health Ministry has suspended the head of the technical services of the Sofala Provincial Health Directorate, Lucas Maparage, after anomalies were detected in awarding contracts for building health centres, and other public works in the sector.

The Saturday edition of the Beira daily paper "Diario de Mocambique" reports that Maparage owns three luxury residences in Beira. It is hard to see how he could have acquired these through his civil servant's salary, and they raise suspicions of corruption in the awarding of building contracts.

At a meeting chaired last year by Sofala provincial governor Felicio Zacarias, some local businessmen claimed that Maparage is a partner in several building companies, and that it was precisely those companies that won most of the tenders launched by the provincial health directorate. At the time Maparage denied the accusation. However, "Diario de Mocambique" has checked the ownership of two of the three companies concerned, Beira Empreitadas Lda and Engas Engenheiros Associados Lda. It found that both these companies listed somebody called Maparage as among the owners.

When the paper confronted Lucas Maparage with this, he replied "It's just a coincidence of names. I've never owned any companies and I'm not a partner. It's all false. It's pure speculation".

Furthermore, the inspectorate of the Public Works Ministry has discovered that some health centres in Sofala were badly built, and in other cases the contractors abandoned the site before completing the work - even though they had been fully paid in advance.