Maputo — Corruption, poor knowledge of the relevant legislation, and lack of uniform operational procedures are among the main challenges facing Mozambique's National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE), according to INAE spokesperson, Tomas Timba.

Speaking at a Monday press conference in Maputo, held to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the creation of INAE, Timba acknowledged that corruption involves members of INAE's staff, who ought to be inspecting economic institutions and punishing the irregularities that they find.

A further problem, he added, is that INAE is unable to cover the entire national territory. Its lack of resources restricts its activities to the main urban centres.

"If we look at the statistics', said Timba, "in 14 years we were able to verify, three, four or five cases of corruption. The relevance of this could be debatable, but for us, the ideal would be to eliminate corruption altogether. We don't want any case of corruption. The standardization of procedures, also within the institution, remains a challenge'.

As for inspecting the prices of basic goods on the Mozambican market, Timba stressed that INAE inspectors are on the ground doing their job. "The fact that nowadays we are not constantly talking with the mass media does not mean that we are not doing this work', he said. "We are working on the task of fixing maximum profit margins. We have to look at the overall economic conjuncture, and we shall see that it is not only the Mozambican market that suffers increases in the prices of basic goods'.

Timba says INAE hopes that the government will transform it into a National Authority of Economic Activities. He believed this would make it a more powerful body.