The Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organization (NGO), says that the government's proposed law on the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) from gas revenues has weaknesses that could undermine the fund's intended objectives.

Among the various weaknesses pointed out by the NGO, the following stand out:

-The FS that is intended to be created will only capture revenues from the production of liquefied gas from areas 1 and 4, offshore the Rovuma basin and future oil and natural gas development and production projects. This claim ignores the existence of other projects in the sector that could also contribute significantly to the fund's objectives.

-Lack of practicality in complying with the revenue distribution quotas between the State Budget (60%) and the FS (40%). The impracticality arises from the fact that the draft law states that, despite establishing the quota, whenever necessary the FS must finance the State Budget if there are differences between what is planned and what is realized and/or if in a given year the country suffers from anomalous situations.

-Limitation of transparency due to the confidentiality clause in the disclosure of information arising from the management of the WSF;

The attribution to the government of the power to regulate structural aspects, far from public scrutiny, and the referral of the approval of general non-structural aspects to the Assembly of the Republic. Away from public scrutiny, the government can approve whatever suits it, even if it could compromise the performance of the FS;

-The problematic governance structure of the "bank account" called FSM gives excessive powers to the government and the Bank of Mozambique. On the one hand, the role that the government has assigned itself should be better represented by the AR, where there is room for public participation, and on the other hand, the Bank of Mozambique is a non-transparent institution, as evidenced by the audit reports of its accounts in recent years;

-Lack of clarity in the accountability mechanisms, which can be seen in the absence of criteria for selecting auditors and the role of the Administrative Court.

Therefore, the CIP says that before the Law is passed, there is a need to improve the proposal submitted to the RA with a view to safeguarding the above-mentioned aspects and thus ensuring that the FS, to be created, can contribute to the intended objectives, while observing the Principles of Good Governance.