Corruption still prevalent, warns ombudsman

Maputo, 10 Nov (AIM) – The Mozambican ombudsman, Isaque Chande, warned on Thursday that “despite improvements in public services, there remain challenges that attack the rights of citizens seeking to use the public administration”.

Delivering his annual report to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Chande said that acts of corruption are still prevalent in many public institutions. Public funds are stolen, officials extort illicit charges from users, and decisions on requests are not taken in good time. Faulty communication with citizens, he said, “creates uncertainty and legal insecurity”.

Access to public administration staff in leadership positions remains difficult. “Often the chiefs do not bother to listen to the concerns of citizens”, said Chande.

The principle of equality in public tendering is violated, he added, by nepotism and by the existence of “manifestly arrogant” state officials who abuse their office.

Such bad practices, added Chande, can have serious results for the daily lives of citizens. Although there could be no immediate solution for eliminating these evils, he continued, “the first step is publicly recognising them as evils that affect the lives of Mozambicans”.

The next step would be “to step up the fight against corruption without quarter, arresting the offenders and putting them on trial”.

Some corrupt public officials have been arrested and tried “and we are convinced that the persuasive effect of this can be felt in the coming years”, said Chande.

“We must continue to fight vigorously against impunity in our institutions”, he declared.

The parliamentary group of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) ended its boycott of the Assembly, in order to listen to and question the Ombudsman.

The MDM asked Chande about the illegalities that had characterized the municipal elections held on 11 October.

However, electoral crimes are not part of the Ombudsman’s remit. But the person who should deal with them was in the chamber, listening to the debate. She is Lucia Ribeiro, chairperson of the Constitutional Council, the country’s highest body in matters of constitutional and electoral law.

The council is dealing with a large number of appeals against the preliminary results from the elections, released a fortnight ago by the National Elections Commission (CNE).

Eventually, the Council must validate and proclaim the election results, but no date for this has yet been fixed.

While the MDM returned to the Assembly, the main opposition party, Renamo, did not. As a result the discussion around Chande’s report was dominated by deputies of the ruling Frelimo Party.

(AIM)

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