The General Inspection of Public Administration has found evidence of a crime in the case of errors detected in the textbook of the 6th grade of elementary school in Mozambique, said the spokesman of that institution.

"Some indications of criminal offenses have been detected and, therefore, the reports have been submitted to the Office of Anti-Corruption," explained the spokesman for the General Inspectorate of Public Administration, Sérgio Goque, quoted by Radio Mozambique today.

At issue is the controversial case of serious errors found in the 6th grade elementary school textbook, an episode that was analyzed by a commission of inquiry which concluded that there was negligence and lack of professionalism in the production of the textbooks, holding departments of the Ministry of Education and Porto Editora responsible.

In total, according to the Inspectorate General of Public Administration, 12 reports of investigations conducted by the institution have been submitted to the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption, which is currently examining all the procedures followed in the production of the book, including the contracting, acquisition, importation, revision and distribution of the manual.

Among the several errors detected in the book, which was withdrawn from schools after the typos were discovered, is the geographic location of Mozambique, which in the book is located in East Africa and is not listed as a country of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), an entity in whose foundation it participated.

Another anomaly that is considered serious is the location of former borders of Zimbabwe, a country that borders Mozambique, but which the book indicates is bathed by the Red Sea.

The misconceptions also include illustrating a photo of the Angolan parliament as being from Mozambique.

The Ministry of Education's commission of inquiry set up to evaluate the case pointed to negligence on the part of Porto Editora as one of the causes of the errors classified as serious in schoolbooks, blaming also departments in the sector, namely the National Institute for the Development of Education and the National Directorate for Primary Education, which had their heads dismissed. (Lusa)