Economist and former president of the Mozambican Tax Authority (AT) and the National Statistics Institute (INE), Rosário Fernandes, says that Mozambique is unlikely to become a strong state as long as there is no respect for the principle of separation of powers and, at some point, the field of action of the state and a political party is confused.

Speaking last Thursday (25), during the inaugural lecture at the Pedagogical University - Maputo, Rosário Fernandes said that it is incomprehensible that public servants should occupy normal working hours, inside public facilities, at party political meetings.

"Civil servants who spend their working hours holding party meetings are not contributing to the state, they are not working, and an ethical and unethical leader should mark them absent and deduct those absences from their salaries. That's not abnormal. It's following the dictates of the law," said the speaker.

Quoted by Media FaxRosário Fernandes recalls that, through law number 16/2012 of August 14, Mozambique approved the Law of Public Probity, which is a legal instrument that demands probity and respect for ethics within the public administration.

The former leader also points out that this law clearly systematizes the rules that enshrine the duties, responsibilities and obligations of public servants in order to ensure morality, transparency, impartiality and public probity.

"This instrument covers all public office holders, from the President of the Republic to the head of the village, without ignoring managers from other state bodies," Fernandes said.

To ensure compliance with ethics, according to the speaker, the Central Public Ethics Commission was created, which is made up of nine members appointed by the government, the Assembly of the Republic and the judiciary.

However, when it comes to violations of ethical principles on the part of public office holders, in some circumstances with signs of criminality, this Commission does not make itself felt. Nor does the action of the bodies responsible for monitoring legality, such as the Attorney General's Office and the Administrative Court.

According to Rosário Fernandes, the Public Probity Law prohibits, for example, the use of the workplace and working hours to carry out other people's work, such as political party meetings, as well as the use of public institutions' property and equipment for private purposes.

Meanwhile, on the ground, there are countless cases in which protocol residences are used to house political party members with logistics and support staff supported by the state.

For Rosário, the inoperability of the Public Ethics Commission is partly the result of the way it is set up.

He explains that the ethics commissions should be inspired by the electoral commissions, with the necessary adaptations to the rules, in keeping with the good practice of the ethicalization of public institutions. To this end, the members of Public Ethics should be nominated by ballot where, in addition to parliamentarians, academic and religious institutions, civil society organizations and extra-parliamentary political parties participate.

To this end, the proposal of candidates should not come from Parliament or the government, but from the living forces of Mozambican society, such as academic, religious or civil society institutions. In other words, figures who have no direct interest in what they are going to guide, deliberate or respond to.

This avoids the theory of simple or absolute parliamentary majorities or discretionary voting, as well as pressure, influence, manipulation or intimidation by its members, who under the current arrangements have the task of appointing, transferring, punishing or dismissing as many times as they can on obscure criteria and according to their own interests.

Because of these and many other weaknesses, the country is witnessing scenarios in which the requirement to reach high office in the public administration or in the management of public companies is not the competence to occupy the position, but the simple fact of being a comrade.

State assets and businesses are being seized by minorities from groups belonging to certain political parties.

"It's difficult to develop a state in a scenario where every time a group arrives, they say it's my turn, and if you want a place in the hierarchy, favor me in this and that. Give it to me and I'll give it to you. Today, positions that should be filled through public tenders are filled through nepotism, favors and party affiliation. It's very difficult to build a country of social justice on these terms," he lamented.