Mozambique: Corruption cost state €5.8 million in the first half of 2024
According to figures from the Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC), the Mozambican state suffered losses of around 405 million meticais (€5.8 million) due to corruption offences in the first half of this year.
The figure is an increase on the same period in 2023, when losses totalling 183.3 million meticais (€2.6 million) were recorded, according to the GCCC, an agency of the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In the first six months of this year, the Mozambican authorities seized assets valued at €589,000 resulting from acts of corruption.
The assets are the result of 705 criminal cases brought in relation to crimes of abuse of office, embezzlement and simulation of competences, according to the GCCC’s balance sheet for the first half of the year.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in the first six months of the year, the Mozambican state seized 277,617.09 meticais (€4,000), which “were deposited in the Single Treasury Account”.
In the same period, the document from the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office indicates that four properties valued at 39,182,142 meticais (€566,000) and a Hyundai Santa Fé car valued at 1,350,000 meticais (€19,000) were seized.
The GCCC also indicates that in the first half of the year 705 cases were opened, in addition to the 623 that were carried over from last year, totalling 1,328, which represents a reduction of 46.
On 17 June, Lusa reported that Mozambique had recovered more than 2,905 billion meticais (€42.5 million) in 11,000 cases against corruption, terrorist financing and money laundering over the last ten years.
“As proceeds and/or advantages of the illicit activities investigated,” explained the deputy director of the Central Office for Combating Corruption (GCCC), Eduardo Sumana, at the time.
He also said that in the last ten years, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office has processed 11,030 cases in this area, of which 10,403 have been resolved, corresponding to 94%, and 83 vehicles have also been seized and 56 properties recovered.
The Central Asset Recovery Office in Mozambique recovered more than 1.385 billion meticais (€20.2 million) from illicit sources in the last 12 months alone, in a total of 84 asset and financial investigation cases, according to data from the Public Prosecutor’s Office previously reported by Lusa.
The figure represents an increase compared to the previous period, when an estimated 1,149 million meticais (almost €17 million) worth of assets were recovered, reads a document that takes stock of the work of the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office.