The Ministry of Economy and Finance published on Monday a report revealing the misuse of more than two billion dollars from the fund created to fight the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The ministerial inspection team identified that 2,013,744,208.58 of the Covid-19 Funda, equivalent to 12.8% of the amount executed in 2020, were used irregularly.

The set of irregularities includes payment processes that did not observe the legally established contracting procedures; the signing of contracts that were not submitted for prior inspection and/or submitted after the legal deadline; the existence of expenses that were not eligible for funding; the existence of undue payments; and the existence of payments without supporting documents.

In 2020, the partners disbursed 23,755.9 million meticais, of which 20,666.9 billion meticais were used.

The contracting sector recorded the highest number of irregularities, having absorbed 1,888,143,624.73 meticais, corresponding to nine percent of the total amount executed in 2020. Of this amount, 1.687.633.244,85 of meticais were registered in the contracting process; 188.930.563,00 of meticais in the breach of contract clauses; and 9.057.419,41 of meticais, in the execution of processes without contracting criteria.

As for the conclusion of contracts not submitted for prior review by the Administrative Court and/or submitted after the legal deadline, a total value of 42,087,359.20 Meticais was recorded, corresponding to less than 0.01% of the 2020 execution.

"The failure to refer these contracts for prior inspection was based on instructions No. 1/GP/TA/2020, of April 2, 2/GP/TA/2020, of July 17, and 3/GP/TA/2020, of October 13, from the Administrative Court exempting this act, however, having to submit them to successive inspection after the end of the state of emergency," justifies the Report.

The document reports the existence of expenses not eligible for financing in the total amount of 78,768,545.65MT, corresponds to 3.8% of the funds executed in 2020. "Payment of expenses in the amount of 28,286,726.81 MT referring to borrowers under the financing of Small and Medium Enterprises to address the effects of COVID-19, whose disbursements were made through commercial banks, being in progress the monitoring of all borrowers for the validation of the application of funds and there being violation of the general rules of the financing contract, the sanctioning measures will be taken according to the severity of the cases," stresses the source.

The Government says that it has encountered undue payments totaling 1,062,200.00 MT, corresponding to 0.001% of the funds executed in 2020. Of this amount, there were recorded payments of allowances amounting to 855,000.00 MT, whose offenders were notified and proceeded to return 610,200.00 MT, with the remainder in the process of return through the deduction of wages; and the payment of 207,200.00 MT for the supply of toners that were later found to be defective, having been notified the supplier and proceeded to return them.

The Inspection Team of the Ministry of Economy and Finance also found the existence of payments without supporting documents, in the total amount of 3,682,479.00 MT, corresponding to less than 0.01% of the 2020 execution, referring to the payment of beneficiaries of the Basic Social Allowance and Productive Social Action Program, whose documents were duly identified and analyzed.

In the Report, the Government explains that all the processes covered were notified for the regularization of the contracting processes, and were regularized after the audit for the 2020 fiscal year. It also explains that the funds allocated to address the COVID-19 prevention were executed in a particular and atypical moment, and the managers "were called upon to print a different dynamic under unprecedented circumstances."

"The cases that consisted of anomalies were submitted to the Functional Procurement Supervision Unit for proper monitoring and, where appropriate, to proceed with the corresponding procedure for sanctioning the offenders," assures the source.

It should be noted that the document reveals that of the 700 Million USD mobilized by the Government to address Covid-19, by January 13, 2021, it had received 162,137,973.53 USD through the Treasury Single Account, and 113.23 Million USD through the Ministry of Health's Covid-19 Emergency Account.

Note that the report of the Ministry of Economy and Finance is published one month after the Administrative Court denounced that there was mismanagement of the money the country received from different partners during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a matter of fact, in a bulletin on Public Finance, the Center for Public Integrity had questioned at the end of last March the destination given to USD 294.99 million, channeled to the Government to fight Covid-19. (letter)