Mozambique: No Competitive Tenders to Provide Election Material

2 October 2024
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

Maputo — The Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), has warned that the National Elections Commission (CNE) has deliberately avoided competitive public tenders to provide the materials that will be used in the presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections scheduled for 9 October.

Instead, the CNE and its executive body, the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE), have awarded the contracts for election material directly, without any public tender, to the company Academica owned by the Sidat family, which has strong links to the ruling Frelimo party.

The latest contract, worth 3.8 billion meticais (about 59.4 million dollars at the current exchange rate), is for the supply of training material for the polling station staff (MMV), which is currently underway, as well as material to be used on voting day (9 October).

According to CIP, in its Bulletin on the elections, the CNE decided to award the contract to Academica at a session held last August.

As with all direct awards, the CNE accepted the argument presented by STAE that there was not enough time for an open public tender. On this occasion, STAE said "there is less than 30 days to set in motion all the contracting procedures which, as a rule, would take about 90 days, not including possible claims and appeals', which would "suspend the tender'.

CIP points out that "STAE considers Académica to be a trustworthy company because it has fulfilled its contractual and legal obligations in the past, with agreed technical specifications and within the established deadlines. The body also says that the contract was awarded to Académica because the company is a supplier of recognized merit and knows about the Mozambican electoral procedures.'

The electoral material will be produced by the South African company Uniprint and Lalgy, a transport company owned by the Lalgy family, which also has links to the Frelimo party, will be responsible for transporting the material, says CIP.

In 2023 alone, Academica was granted, by direct award, five contracts amounting to almost 3.4 billion meticais.

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