The Assembly of the Republic (AR) elected the nine members of the Supervisory Committee (SC) of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) yesterday, Wednesday (31), in Maputo.

According to a AIMThis is an independent body that will control revenues from the production of liquefied natural gas from Areas 1 and 4 Offshore in the Rovuma basin, Cabo Delgado province, including future oil and natural gas development and production projects.

In the public competition, in which 76 candidates from various national entities took part, the following were elected: social activists Benilde Nhalivilo and Estrela Eduardo, representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs); Inocêncio Paulino, from the business community; academics Emanuel Chaves and Alcides Novela; lawyer Celestino Sitoe, from the Mozambique Bar Association (OAM).

Meanwhile, those elected include the auditor Altino Mavile, representing the Order of Accountants and Auditors of Mozambique; and the religious, António Sandramo and Mussa Suefe, who come from religious associations of recognized merit and covering the whole of Mozambique.

The election of the members of the SC took place by secret ballot and at least 207 deputies were present, out of a total of 250 who make up the AR.

For example, from the CSO representatives, competitors such as Tomás Vieira Mário, Denise Namburete, and Rui Mate; in academia, competitors such as Filipe Sitoe, Manuel Sibia, Vitória Afonso Langa, Isabel Vilanculos, and from the religious associations, Osório Afonso and Inácio Lucas did not get enough votes from the MPs during the ballot.

The deputies voted for the names on each list of representatives, i.e. they held nine ballot papers in their hands.

In fact, before voting began on the candidates for the Sovereign Fund's SC, the chair of the Ad-Hoc Committee for the selection of the members who currently make up the Supervisory Committee, Vitória Diogo, explained during the presentation of the final report that the screening revealed that some candidates did not meet the requirements.

"The Ad Hoc Committee also carried out a thorough analysis of the curriculum vitae, which was the basis for the ranking, having looked at the candidates' academic qualifications and the breadth of their training," said Vitória Diogo, in the plenary session of the AR.

In addition to overseeing the revenues achieved in the first 15 years of the FS's operation, of which 40% are earmarked for the Fund, and 60 percent for the State Budget, the Supervisory Committee also controls the deposits of revenues in the transitional account.

The Supervisory Committee will also oversee the return on investment of FS revenues, and the tax base for calculating revenues from the exploitation of oil resources, Corporate Income Tax, as well as monitoring the resulting taxation of capital gains, production bonuses and production sharing from profit oil.

The Supervisory Committee reports directly to the HR through a quarterly report and its conclusions are public.

(Photo DR)