The scandal around three companies in Mozambique that were able to accrue massive debts is being in investigated by the country’s Attorney-General’s office.
Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili has already made it plain to Mozambique’s parliament that a serious investigation is taking place. Among the three companies is Empresa Mocambicana de Atum SA, known as Ematum, a state-owned fishing company that ordered a series of 21 freezer longliners for fishing tuna and three fresher trawlers designed to fish for fresh bait as an alternative to using imported frozen bait.
The vessels were ordered from the CMN shipyard in France. The boats were built at the Cherbourg yard and by a sub-contractor in Romania to meet the delivery schedule
The Ematum loans were raised on the Eurobond market, although opposition politicians have described the affair as the ‘biggest financial scandal in Mozambican history.’ An investigation into the Ematum loans has been in progress for some months, initiated after reports of what has been described as ‘possible illegalities in the constitution, financing and operation of that unit by the state.’
While the Ematum loan was disclosed, the Mozambican government earlier this year admitted the existence of $1.4 billion of previously undisclosed borrowing, including loans by state-owned Mozambique Asset Management, or MAM, and Proindicus, leading to the International Monetary Fund suspending lending to Mozambique and the fourteen donors and funding agencies that had provided direct support to Mozambique and the IMF suspending all disbursement.
