Mozambique’s National Institute for Social Action on Tuesday denied that funds had been redirected to fight Covid-19, as indicated by the Administrative Court, arguing that the funds were distributed among its regional delegations, as provided for by internal rules.
“There was no diversion of funds and it is clarified that an amount of 1.7 billion rubles was allocated for the payment of subsidies to households, the implementation of which was carried out through the representative offices of the National Institute of Social Action (INAS)?”, the message says. government plan,” the document says.
“(…)In addition, the central authority does not bear the cost of paying beneficiaries, responsibility for this activity rests with the delegations, which are independent budgetary units,” the authority said in a response note sent to the daily newspaper O País. .
This is an audit by the Administrative Court of Mozambique, which revealed a deviation of the equivalent of more than 24 million euros in funds allocated by the state in 2021 to prevent and mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an audit report that Lusa had access to in December, the Administrative Court says it identified “matters that distort the financial reporting of funds allocated to prevent and mitigate the effects” of Covid-19 in the 2021 financial year.
A document sent to the government states that the National Institute for Social Action, a beneficiary government agency under the supervision of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Action, incurred expenses amounting to approximately 1.71 billion metics (24.2 million euros), what constitutes “cost”. for which there was no evidence of payment for services under the contract, which constitutes a waste of funds.”
“An audit of the financial performance of Covid-19 funds requires a prior understanding of the sector’s intervention plan, the scale, the context in which the country lived when the relevant expenditure was made, and an understanding of the internal control system in place. Financial statements must take these elements into account to enable the opinion to be faithful to the facts,” INAS said in the note.
INAS’s first reaction came after Gender, Children and Social Affairs Minister Nyeleti Mondlane on Saturday denied reports that more than €24 million had been diverted.
“This was a new experience for the industry, and the industry has its own rules. The Covid-19 emergency has required us to act quickly. Therefore, in some cases, our employees went to the field and registered families in vulnerable situations and made payments (…) we have already responded to the legal authority – the Ministry of Economy and Finance,” added Njeleti Mondlane.
The audit by the Administrative Court of Mozambique also found that improper payments amounting to more than 78.6 million metikays (1.1 million meticays) and unacceptable expenses amounting to 25 million meticays (354 thousand euros) were made.
Among other things, the court also draws attention to contracts worth more than 57.3 million metises (EUR 811 thousand) not submitted for preliminary verification, violations in the process of concluding contracts totaling more than 100.1 million metises (EUR 1.4 million) and the lack of documents. justification of expenses totaling 11.7 million metises (165,700 euros).
The document recalls that, in view of the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, the Mozambican government has drawn up a “needs plan” with a budget of $700 million (€633.5 million), of which $100 million (€90.5 million) for prevention and treatment. $200 million (€181 million) for government budget support, $240 million (€219 million) for family transfers and $160 million (€145 million) for micro-businesses.
The audit concluded that “deficiencies” found in the control and management of these funds “contributed to the fact that the financial statements contained material misstatements”, namely “poor communication of the purpose of payments made” by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. due to “insufficient implementation or absence of control mechanisms”, due to “deficiencies in the organization of files and records of accountability processes.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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