The administrator of the central Mozambican district of Sussundenga, Mariazinha Niquice, last week ordered the arrest of the owner of the building company Mozambique Construction because he had attempted to bribe her, reports Tuesday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”.The contractor, Guideon Carlos Ernesto, was in dispute with the district government over delays in building a residence for the head of the Dombe administrative post. This job was awarded to Mozambique Construction in 2009, with a budget of 505,000 meticais (about 18,700 US dollars).The work should have taken three months, but two years have passed and it is not yet complete.Ernesto claimed the budget was insufficient and demanded more money. The first request, for an additional 250,000 meticais, was granted in 2009, but in 2010 Ernesto said he would need an extra 900,000 meticais to finish the job. The budget had thus more than tripled.Niquice was suspicious that Ernesto had no intention of using the money on the Dombe residence, and demanded a report from the district administration’s own building staff.To avoid such an inconvenient report, Ernesto offered Niquice a cheque in her name for 100,000 meticais.Angered at the attempt to bribe her, Niquice called the police to her office, where Ernesto was arrested. The cheque was filmed by a crew from the independent television station, STV.“He said he wanted to thank me”, Niquice told reporters, “and when I asked him what he was thanking me for, he said it was to facilitate the disbursement of the third amount he had requested from the district administration”.
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