Suspected theft of 1.2 million meticais

More than 1.2 million meticais (about 22,650 US dollars, at current exchange rates), intended to build a police training centre at Metuchira, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, has disappeared from the finance department of the Sofala provincial police command, according to a report in the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”.The theft was discovered by the former Sofala police commander, Antonio Pelembe. He had come under pressure from his superiors in Maputo, who wanted to know what was happening with the training centre.Lower ranking Sofala officials told Pelembe that the centre did not exist – but the Ministry of the Interior insisted that it had sent 1.2 million meticais to Sofala for the building work.The former head of the finance department, Filipe Diogo, has been accused of diverting the money into his personal account.The spokesperson for the Beira branch of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC), Lino Mathe, confirmed to the paper that the case is at an advanced stage of investigation.“I confirm that there is a case of suspected diversion of funds from the police in Sofala”, he said. “But later investigations will confirm whether this is theft or not”.Mathe said he could not give details, for fear of damaging the investigation. “More than four people” had been questioned so far, he added, but no-one had been arrested.