Maputo, 4 Jul (AIM) – The Mozambican Police (PRM) has arrested an official from the central city of Beira, after catching him red-handed receiving a bribe of 120,000 meticais
The bribe was supposedly intended to cancel a fine of 550,000 meticais imposed on a construction project.
According to a PRM spokesperson in Beira, Roberto Selemane, the official assigned to the works inspection department detected an anomaly and he issued the fine.
Then, the same official contacted the owner of the construction job telling him to pay a 275,000 meticais bribe in installments in order to avoid paying the real amount that was necessary for the fine.
“However, as the site owner didn’t have the amount, they negotiated down to 120,000 meticais. Once an agreement had been reached, one of the representatives of the construction site decided to inform the police about what was going on and the municipal employee was found red-handed receiving the amount”, Selemane said.
“With this amount, he intended to cancel the fine so that the money would not go to the municipality’s coffers”, he explained.
The man arrested claims that he is a victim of harassment. “There was a trap to incriminate me”, he alleged. “I wasn’t found with any money in my hand. This money that they accuse me of having taken, I only heard that it was in my possession at the police station.”
(AIM)
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