Mozambican nationality has been sold for between 40,000 and 150,000 meticais in Mozambique, in a scheme that starts at the Central Registry Office and ends at the Ministry of the Interior, involving legal intermediaries or lawyers, reveals an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity (CIP), published today.

"However, the amount can vary depending on the number of people involved in the scam," with some cases reaching up to 150,000 meticais, the civil society organization revealed.

Any fraudulent process for acquiring Mozambican nationality or the documents to prove it can take as little as two months in Maputo city.

"A larger part of the amount is shared between the members of the network responsible for the negotiation. Another part is used to bribe officials from the Central Registry Office and the Civil Identification Directorate, with a view to issuing the narrative certificate, speeding up the signing of documents and issuing identity cards, among other procedures. [The sale of nationality involves a network of civil servants assigned to the Central Registry Office, an entity under the purview of the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, and intermediaries with no connection to the state apparatus, including some jurists or lawyers in the field," he said.

According to the document consulted by MZNewsThe fraud stems from non-compliance with certain requirements for granting nationality, poor communication between the institutions responsible, as well as the antiquity of the Nationality Law and the Decree that regulates it, approved in 1975.

"It's been 48 years that the same law has been in force, with no updates. This situation leaves room for manipulation by the public officials responsible and for corruption schemes," says the CIP, which noted that the law omits deadlines for completing the process of granting nationality. "... it could open up room for arbitrariness, making the processes long for some and short for others."

The CIP investigation noted several other weaknesses in the national system for granting nationality through the other modalities, such as the verification of the authenticity of documents and the payment of documentation in cash at registry offices. Read more here the full investigation.