Mozambique: Anti-Corruption Office Investigates Lam

Embraer
A Mozambique Airlines aircraft
23 February 2024
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

Maputo — Mozambique's Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption (GCCC) has opened two investigations into possible criminal activities concerned with the management of Mozambique Airlines (LAM).

According to Friday's issue of the independent newssheet "Carta de Mocambique', one of them dates back to January 2023, and concerns "the management of the fleet, notably the purchase of aircraft, their hire, and the indebtedness of the company to acquire new equipment, maintenance operations, as well as the contracting of suppliers, the legitimacy of the invoices paid, and the sale of the company's social assets'.

The Attorney-General's Office (PGR), to which the GCCC is subordinate, says it has collected from LAM and from other institutions "abundant documentation related with the facts which is still undergoing due treatment'.

The GCCC added that, in July 2023, it asked the General Inspectorate of Finance and the General Inspectorate of the Public Administration to undertake audits of the LAM management's accounts. The GCCC is still waiting for the audit reports.

In addition to Mozambique, this investigation involves five foreign jurisdictions, and the collection of evidence has thus required international cooperation.

This month, the GCCC opened a second investigation when it became aware, from reports in the media, of "new facts'. This included the acquisition of air tickets at LAM shops, but using POS (point of sale) machines owned by third parties, and over-invoicing in the purchase of fuel for the flights between Maputo and Lisbon.

Thus two cases are under way in the GCCC seeking to discover the truth about the scandals which have rocked LAM in recent weeks.

These investigations may meet the demand for an independent audit made by the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) on Thursday at the opening of the current sitting of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

The head of the MDM parliamentary group, Lutero Simango, wanted an audit of all public companies, following the claim by Fly Modern Ark, the South African company hired to advise LAM, that around 3.2 million dollars had been embezzled from the company.

"The question that remains unanswered is: where is this money going?', Simango asked.

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