MAJOR INCREASE IN CORRUPTION CASES BROUGHT TO TRIAL

Over the past year, there has been a significant increase in the number of corruption cases brought to trial, according to Mozambique’s Attorney-General, Augusto Paulino.Addressing the opening session on  a meeting in the southern city of Matola of the Coordinating Council of the Attorney-General’s Office, Paulino said that between November 2009 and October 2010, of the 190 cases where corruption was alleged, 102 were brought to trial. This compares with just 27 trials the previous year.In 22 cases, the public prosecutor’s office declined to press charges (compared with 43 the previous year). The remaining cases are ongoing.Paulino gave no details of the cases – but the most high profile ones included the prosecution of the former director of the government’s Data Processing Centre (CPD), Orlando Come, who was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for embezzlement, and of former Interior Minister Almerino Manhenje. The judge will give his verdict in the latter case in March.There have been a series of cases involving lower level officials. Most recently, 11 civil servants in the northern province of Cabo Delgado were jailed for between 16 and 20 years for their part in stealing five million meticais (about 147,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates) from the public treasury in 2006.Paulino warned that it was too early to claim victory in the fight against corruption, “but it is fair to recognise that we are striking heavy blows against corruption”.“The existence of cases that have come to trial, which became a notable reality as from last year, shows unequivocally that results are emerging from the reorganization of our institution, and in particular of our operational instrument, which is the Central Office for the Fight Against Corruption (GCCC)”, he said.Under Paulino’s predecessor, Joaquim Madeira, sacked in 2007, there had been no perceptible progress in the fight against corruptionAssistant Attorney-General Taibo Mucobora told reporters from the independent daily “O Pais” that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is not going to investigate the various allegations of corruption and drug trafficking made against senior government figures by the former US charge d’affaires in Maputo, Todd Chapman, in diplomatic cables published by the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks.“The Public Prosecutor works on the basis of information from credible sources”, said Mucobora. “So far it doesn’t seem to us that there are any grounds on which an investigation can be based”.Despite claims of “revelations”, made in some of the press and by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, many of the allegations of drug trafficking in Chapman’s cables are years old, and could have been gleaned from the Mozambican press. Chapman laced these stories with gossip picked up at diplomatic receptions, and outright fabrications.Much more serious than Chapman’s cables was the naming by US President Barack Obama in June, of Mohammed Bachir Sulemane, one of the richest businessmen in Mozambique, as a drug baron. This case is known to be under investigation by Paulino’s office.