Guebuza is probed in audit over loans

MOZAMBIQUE’S attorneygeneral asked the country’s banks to provide details of former President Armando Guebuza’s accounts as part of an audit of $2 billion (R27.4bn) of previously undisclosed government loans. The office requested the information about Guebuza and 17 other individuals and an institution for the period January 2012 to December 2016, according to a letter sent to the country’s banks. Georgina Zandamela, a press officer at the attorneygeneral’s office, said the request forms part of an audit being carried out by New York-based risk analysis firm Kroll of Mozambique’s debt. “This document is part of the preparatory instruction of a Secrecy of Justice process that’s before the courts, so we can’t comment,” she said. Guebuza’s office in the capital 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 last year, said he hadn’t seen the request from the attorney-general and therefore couldn’t comment on it. “As far as I know the investigation is covered by the rule of the Secrecy of Justice,” Mahanjane said. “I don’t know whether he is accused or not.” The attorneygeneral’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 companies hid $622 million and $535m of loans respectively. Kroll is also inspecting $727m of debt raised by Empresa Mocambicana de Atum, or Ematum. – Bloomberg