Guebuza accounts part of debt audit

Mozambique’s attorney-general has asked the country’s banks to provide details of former president Armando Guebuza’s accounts as part of an audit of $2bn in previously undisclosed government loans.

The office requested the information about Guebuza and 17 other individuals and an institution for January 2012 to December 2016, according to a letter sent to the banks.

Georgina Zandamela, a press officer at the attorney-general’s office, said the request formed part of an audit of Mozambique’s debt being carried out by risk analysis firm Kroll.

“This document is part of the preparatory instruction of a secrecy-of-justice process that is before the courts, so we can’t comment,” she said.

Guebuza’s office in Maputo asked for a letter requesting comment and said a response would be available in 21 days.

Isalcio Ivan Mahanjane, a lawyer who represented Guebuza at a parliamentary hearing on the loans in 2016, said he had not seen the request from the attorney-general.

KROLL AUDIT

The attorney-general’s office hired Kroll in November to conduct an audit of state-owned ProIndicus and Mozambique Asset Management after the discovery in April 2016 that the firms had hidden $622m and $535m in loans respectively.

Kroll is also inspecting $727m in debt raised by Empresa Mocambicana de Atum, or Ematum, that was restructured by the government in 2016, according to the finance ministry.