The National Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (INGD) fraudulently spent 196 million Meticais in just two years, an investigation by the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), a non-governmental organization, has concluded.  

The research was carried out in August 2022 and February 2023 using a sample of four (04) public procurement cases at INGD.

According to the NGO, the corruption cases involve misuse and violation of public procurement procedures for public works contracts and the purchase of vehicles, using INGD funds.

The cases listed by the CIP also include evidence of over-invoicing in the contracting of humanitarian aid transport services by the INGD; evidence of embezzlement of funds allocated by the IMF to the INGD to respond to the Covid-19 emergency; and the carrying out of dubious work at the offices of the Secretariat of the Risk and Resilience Management Program in Maputo.

In CIP's view, in addition to the lack of funds, the cases listed reflect negatively on the institution's capacity, and consequently the government's, to respond to the natural disasters that have cyclically affected the country.

The NGO says that the transportation of goods to the beneficiaries of humanitarian aid is one of the most used ways of taking money from the INGD for private purposes.

The NGO recalls that at the time the World Bank informed the Minister of Economy and Finance, Ernesto Max Tonela, that "the auditors noted weaknesses in the contracting system, particularly in determining the economicity of transport contracts".

"One of the recent cases analyzed took place in 2022. In January of that year, INGD signed a contract for the provision of goods transportation services with the company Mavila Transportes Import & Export1, worth 3 million meticais. The contract was awarded by direct award, by order of the President of INGD, Luísa Meque, dated January 18, 2022," says the CIP document consulted by MZNews.

The NGO says that the transportation of goods to the beneficiaries of humanitarian aid is one of the most used ways of taking money from the INGD for private purposes.

The CIP says that when it made the collection, the contracted company claimed that it had carried out a much greater volume of work than the value of the contract and submitted 10 invoices worth 83,799,623.70MT (eighty-three million seven hundred and ninety-nine thousand six hundred and twenty-three meticais and seventy cents), which it demanded payment for.

Regarding the embezzlement of funds related to the pandemic, the organization's research found that leaders of the Disaster Management Fund were involved in 2020 in cases of embezzlement of funds received by the entity for the response to the Covid-19 emergency.

The NGO document also says that the funds were financed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Around 50 million meticais were misused.