The Mozambican government revealed on Wednesday (09) that the contract it had signed with Fly Modern Ark (FMA) for the management of the company Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) did not provide for accountability mechanisms, which makes it difficult to demand more rigorous explanations of the negative results recorded during the term of the contract.

Speaking in Parliament during a session of questions from MPs, the Minister for Transport and Logistics, João Matlombe, acknowledged, however, that the failure to provide for this was a shortcoming in the contract, which raises awareness of the need to use this example to improve future interventions.

It should be remembered that FMA, a South African company, signed an agreement in April 2022 to participate in the management and restructuring of LAM, with an initial validity of one year, which was later extended for another six months. The aim was essentially to get LAM's accounts out of the red, but the company continued to perform negatively.

"This partnership made it possible to reintroduce flights on routes such as Maputo-Harare/Lusaka and Maputo-Johannesburg/Vilankulo/Inhambane, and to establish the Beira/Johannesburg/Beira connection. A cargo plane was also acquired, practices which, despite being aimed at growth and diversification, had a negative impact on the company's operational performance," explained the government official, quoted by the newspaper Notícias.

In 2021, LAM recorded losses of around 1.4 billion meticais, the following year the losses were 448.6 million, in 2023 they reached 3.9 billion and last year they stood at 2.2 billion meticais.

Nevertheless, the government official explained that the losses recorded by LAM are a reflection of years of accumulated difficulties and should not be blamed solely on the management of the FMA.

Regarding the choice of FMA, in the context of allegations of the company's lack of credibility in the southern African region, the minister argued that the government had not identified any information to prove this assumption.

(Photo DR)