The Association of Commerce, Industry and Services (ACIS) of Mozambique yesterday advocated changes in the law of hiring foreign labor to make the standard flexible, and also called for autonomy for diplomatic missions in granting work visas.

"The legislation and regulations inherent to the hiring and legalization of workers of foreign nationality must be changed, so that it is adapted to current needs," says the ACIS, in recommendations on a survey it conducted and released yesterday

The other recommendation is to give diplomatic and consular missions independence in approving or refusing visa applications.

The ACIS also calls for the additional requirements required of foreign workers by public administration officials to be regulated and standardized.

On the other hand, the authorities have to standardize the procedures to be followed by diplomatic missions when processing visa applications.

"The public administration must conform the computer system to the legal formalities inherent to each procedure," reads the document quoted by Lusa.

The ACIS believes that the state should be held responsible for "losses incurred in non-compliance with the law" on the allocation of visas and identification document and residence permit for foreigners.

The investigation found corruption risks in the allocation of visas and foreign labor hiring process, bureaucratic dispersion, procedural requirements not foreseen in the law, and lack of standardization of requirements used in diplomatic and consular missions.