HOSPITAL WORKERS ARRESTED FOR THEFT OF MEDICINES

Four workers in the Zambezia Provincial Hospital, in the central Mozambican city of Quelimane, have been arrested in connection with the theft of medicines, according to Bernardo Duce, the spokesperson for the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC).Giving the monthly GCCC press briefing on Tuesday, Duce said “the medicines are state property and so, whenever such situations occur, those responsible will be held accountable”. Two senior officials of the public electricity company, EDM, in the northern province of Nampula, were arrested for their role in an illicit scheme which drained 526,000 meticais from EDM’s coffers. Duce did not name them, but said one of them was the director of the EDM Nampula Operational Area, and the other was the head of the Financial Department in the province.He also announced that a law officer working for the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office has been accused of stealing 70,000 meticais (about 2,300 US dollars), intended to pay for travel allowances.A member of the Mozambican police at Matalane Practical Police School in Maputo Province was accused of soliciting bribes of 65,000 meticais from four people whom he promised to put onto the police course. The investigation in that case is complete and it has been sent to court for trial.A further two policemen have been charged with corruption in the central city of Beira. Duce said they had come across two citizens carrying a fishing net and without any identification. They demanded proof that the net belonged to the two men, and when no documents were forthcoming they arrested them and demanded a bribe of 1,000 meticais each to release them.Two traffic policemen, stationed at the Maputo City Police command, left Maputo without authorisation, and set up an illegal checkpoint in Manhica district, about 70 kilometres north of the capital, where they extorted money from passing motorists. But they were caught red-handed by a local prosecutor, who realized that the checkpoint should not be there.Duce also reported the detention of a trader who paid a bribe of 40,000 meticais to an official of a district government (which district was not revealed) in an attempt to ensure that his project was approved for a loan from the District Development Fund (FDD). Asked about the award of the contract for the digitalization of radio and television to the Chinese company Startimes Software Technology, without a public tender, Duce said he could make no comment.Claims have been made in some of the media that the contract is highly irregular, particularly because Focus 21, a company owned by President Armando Guebuza and his family, has a 15 per cent holding in a second company of the Startimes group, Startimes Media Mozambique. Duce said he only became aware of the contract through the press “and currently we have no relevant information. If we have information, we will share it with you in the future, but right now we have nothing”.