The Minister for Public Works, Housing and Water Resources, Carlos Mesquita, said that the government would continue to invest in the project to build 12,000 houses equally in Tete, Cabo Delgado and Zambézia.

"We continue to insist that it goes ahead. We're building houses that were valued at around 1,200, but it depends on the amount of funding we're going to have so that we can then resize the whole structure," he said.

This is a plan led by the Housing Development Fund (FFH) to build housing for the population.  To this end, the state obtained funding of 47 million US dollars, disbursed by the Exim Bank of India. Meanwhile, an international public tender culminated in a "scam" of 14 million dollars. The government drained the money to the Indian construction company, Ultra Home Constructions Ltda, whose guarantees were held in a shell bank in Italy.

In a report by Success TVThe Minister "exonerated" Mozambique from responsibility for the procurement process in that project and blamed it on India.

"This is an issue that we are continuing to analyze. When you fail to procurement Some aspects need to be taken into account. It is one of the projects that the Indian government has taken responsibility for. procurementThe whole management and even the selection of companies," he said.

Mesquita also said that one of the obligations of the contract was for Mozambique to acquire 75% of materials from India.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, which triggered the case, the project still hasn't come off the drawing boardIt has also been readjusted for the construction of 900 houses, 300 of which will be provincial homes.

"So we're analyzing. We're doing an internal evaluation. It's not just that we're doing it now. We're already doing it, and we've even had meetings to discuss these aspects, because, obviously, what wasn't our responsibility and wasn't applied shouldn't be credited to us," he stressed.

Asked if the Mozambican authorities were going to hold the Indian construction company responsible, Mesquita said that work was still underway to decide what steps to take. For now, there seems to be no one to blame for the 14 million dollar scam.

"We're still working on it. We have to see exactly who is most to blame, the company, the Mozambican or Indian state, I don't know. We'll evaluate. We're working with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Public Prosecutor's Office. And then we'll see the results in order to take action," he said.

Asked by journalists if there was room for accountability, Mesquita immediately replied: "Accountable to whom? Do you know [Mr. journalist]? That's what I'm saying, I don't know either. We're still studying. As soon as we reach a conclusion, we'll see what the legal rules say should be done."