Maputo — Mozambican Labour Minister Margarida Talapa, has urged workers enrolled in the compulsory social security system, managed by the National Social Security Institute (INSS), to directly monitor their contributions in the system, as a way of ensuring that their company or employer is honoring their social commitment.

Talapa was speaking in Pemba, capital of the northern province of Cabo Delgado, during a national meeting on the management of social security contribution debts and on the electronic platform created by the INSS, called M-Contribuição. This is an easy and cost-free way of workers to check whether or not their employers have paid their contributions into the social security system.

According to the minister, the M-Contribuição platform is an effective and instantaneous way to obtain information or services, because the beneficiary or taxpayer can, using their registration number and password, log directly into the system to check whether their contributions are really being channeled to the INSS.

Talapa also explained how worrying the INSS contribution debt situation is, arguing that there were 77,035 taxpayers in the system who owed money, with a total debt of over four billion meticais (62 million dollars at the current exchange rate).

A longstanding scandal is that many employers deduct social security contributions from their workers' wages, but then do not channel the money to the INSS. This is a way of employers stealing from their own workforce: and when the contributions are not paid, the workers cease to be eligible for social security benefits.