The shipments of Liquefied Natural Gas that Mozambique has already made by the end of July have raised 40 million dollars, and the Center for Public Integrity (CIP) wants to know the government's specific whereabouts.

The organization understands that the National Director of Economic Policies and Development of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), Enilde Sarmento, made a vague statement recently, stating that the amount is deposited in a bank account protected by the Tax Authority.

In this sense, the CIP questions the name of the bank; the percentage of interest that this deposit is earning; the rationality of keeping money in a situation of lack of liquidity even to pay salaries; the total value of the 17 shipments and four condensed shipments; and the categories of taxes and the respective amounts collected so far.

From the NGO's point of view, the lack of an appropriate response to these questions creates a risky environment for the lack of transparency regarding the revenue collected by the Coral Sul project, FLNG.

"It's important that it's public knowledge in which bank the money is deposited, the type of account that receives the revenue if, for example, it's an escrow account and, if it's in a commercial bank, what the selection process was for that bank, and also what treatment will be given to the interest that can be generated with the deposited money until the law is passed," writes the CIP.

The use of gas revenues is dependent on the approval of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, whose debate on the draft law creating it has already been postponed twice this month. And this "[could] have negative implications and worsen the current situation of public finances, which is already considered critical", reflected in "[the] delay in the payment of salaries to civil servants and [the] recurrent issuance of public debt securities to finance the deficit in public accounts".