The Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a Mozambican non-governmental organization (NGO), claims that the Mozambican government increased its internal debt in 2023 and subsequently cut the budget for public spending, especially in education, health, agriculture and rural development.

In an analysis of the 2023 General State Account (CGE) released this Wednesday (14), the NGO reveals that the Mozambican Executive had set out to collect almost 357.1 billion meticais (a figure that includes current and capital revenue) and to carry out public expenditure worth 472.1 billion meticais. However, the execution of public revenue and expenditure, according to the CIP, was 8.6% and 0.04%, respectively, below the schedule.

"As a result of the poor execution of revenue compared to expenditure, there was a worsening of the primary and global deficit after the donation, which was forecast at almost 115.1 billion meticais and 73.6 billion meticais, to 145.5 billion and 93.9 billion meticais respectively," says the CIP analysis, explaining that "the worsening of the deficit was mainly influenced by the high execution of operating expenses, which were 7.9% above the program, which resulted in the need to contract new public loans that were 32.8% above the limit established in the Economic and Social Plan and State Budget (PESOE)".

The analysis goes on to point out that, in particular, domestic debt was 42.25% higher than programmed, while investment expenditure, on the other hand, was 25% lower than budgeted.

"This shift in the allocation of resources from productive to non-productive sectors is often motivated by the need to meet urgent and unavoidable commitments, such as spending on wages and salaries. In the specific case of salaries, which account for more than 69% of tax revenue, execution was 9.5% higher than planned," emphasizes the CIP, maintaining that in the year 2023 spending on the health, education, agriculture and rural development sectors was drastically reduced.

The document also points out that the agricultural sector in particular had only 34.2% of the programmed execution, arguing that the low execution trend in this sector raises questions about the realism of the state's financial programming, especially as it is considered a crucial area and the basis for the country's economic development, as stated in the Constitution of the Republic.

(Photo DR)