The Center for Democracy and Development (CDD), a non-governmental organization (NGO), says that the salaries of the big bosses have choked the state's accounts to the point where there is no money available to pay the 13th salary in the civil service.

According to the organization's calculations, more than 28 billion meticais would be in the pockets of the 400,000 or so civil servants and state agents who, "in addition to providing some relief during the festive period, would have been used to ease the strain on the budgets of thousands of families during what is considered the 'longest' month of the year".

The NGO recalls that this scenario has been recurrent since the government of the day came to power in 2015. It cites the case of 2016 as the first, in which, according to the organization, hundreds of thousands of Mozambicans working in the civil service received a late announcement that the executive had paid only half the amount, covering only career civil servants (one of the consequences of the reduction in the government's fiscal margin following the hidden debts scandal).

"More recently, when civil servants were already getting used to a certain predictability in the payment of this salary and its incorporation into the spending plan at the turn of the year, the second and even more bitter frustration came. This time, in the form of non-payment of any amount, a fact that hasn't happened for about a decade in the civil service," reads the NGO document to which MZNews had access.

The NGO also says that the state's accounts are "under pressure" to such an extent that a new revision of the TSU, this time in the direction of reductions, has become not only unavoidable but urgent, based on the information put forward by the government itself at the 44th ordinary session of the body, recommending a reduction in the salaries of senior executives.

The CDD also points out that the non-payment of the thirteenth salary also meant that a significant part of planned private consumption was not carried out.

"The same consumption that, assuming there is a national supply of goods and services, would lead to a virtuous cycle that would result in a continuous expansion of economic activity, especially at a time like the beginning of the year when demand is more repressed," writes the NGO.

"With the implementation of the TSU, and assuming the usual modality in the form of a single payment of the basic salary, civil servants would have around 28 billion meticais in their pockets. Considering that the consumption-income elasticity of the national economy is estimated at around 0.6395, this means that not channeling the remuneration has meant a 'blow' of at least 17 billion in planned spending by families on the purchase of goods and services," he said.