“Calmness” – IMF

The IMF permanent representative in Mozambique, Ari Aisen, told Lusa yesterday that the results of the audit of the country’s hidden debts, to be made known Friday, should be received with “calmness”.

“We have to be very calm right now. The Attorney General’s Office is leading this process in a sovereign way and we [the IMF] are helping and are waiting calmly for the report,” Aisen said.According to Aisen, the Mozambican government has already shown that it is concerned about regaining the confidence of the international partners and, at this moment, the most important thing is to ensure that the process moves forward.

“Obviously we still have some work to do and we hope that in the coming months we can move forward with this process that we have already started with the government,” he said. Aisen said that an IMF program would be welcome at a time when the country is going through an economic crisis.

“We want to help the country achieve its goals,” he said, reiterating his call for calm. “After the audit results, we will continue to follow up, always as good partners,” he concluded.

Kroll Associates UK is preparing an independent audit of Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambican Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), three companies owned mainly by the State Information and Security Services (SISE) and created during the government of former president Armando Guebuza. Between 2013 and 2014, ProIndicus contracted a loan of US$622 million (EUR 586 million) with Credit Suisse and Russian VTB bank with guarantees from the Mozambican government, given without the knowledge of the Mozambican parliament and international donor institutions.

The Mozambican government also endorsed a US$535 million loan in favour of MAM, an enterprise set up ostensibly for maritime safety activities, also without the knowledge of the Mozambican parliament or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). To this sum was added more than US$727.5 million (EUR 684.8 million) in sovereign debt securities resulting from the conversion of the corporate bonds issued by Ematum. An independent international audit of these hidden debts was a precondition of the IMF resuming support to Mozambique following the suspension of its funding in April 2016, along with that of 14 other state budget donors.