Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Chemba District Attorney’s Office, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala, has accused Agriculture Minister, Roberto Albino, of illegally ordering the company Ecofarm to log 18 cubic meters of timber from 50 hectares of Albino’s 500-hectare concession.
This is another controversial case involving the Minister of Agriculture, after the Administrative Tribunal (AT), the body responsible for checking the legality of country’s public expenditure, refused approval for a contract budgeted at 130 million meticais (about two million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) signed between the country’s Cotton and Oilseeds Institute (IAOM) and a company related to Albino, Future Technologies of Mozambique.
According to a statement, cited by the prominent anticorruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), “the agreement between the person holding the forestry concession (Albino) and Ecofarm constitutes an environmental crime, since neither party held a logging license.”
As a result of the infraction, the National Agency for Environmental Quality Control (AQUA) has fined Ecofarm 1.2 million meticais (18,800 US dollars, at the current exchange rate). However, the company contests the decision, arguing that the responsibility lies with the owner of the concession, the minister himself.
“Roberto Albino, Ecofarm, and other defendants are facing charges of illegal extraction of forest resources, punishable by sentences ranging from 12 to 16 years in prison”, reads the document.
According to the document, in a ruling dated July 4, 2024, the District Prosecutor’s Office had been unable to interrogate Albino, because “calls made to his contacts were answered by third parties who denied knowing him.”
According to CIP, the controversy gained new momentum in July of this year. However, just a week before the trial was scheduled to begin (29 July), the minister ordered the dismissal of Ermelinda Maquenze, then director of the Sofala Provincial Environmental Services, which had ordered the seizure of the timber and triggered the criminal proceedings.
“The proximity between the dismissal and the trial raises suspicions of political retaliation and casts doubt on the impartiality of the proceedings”, CIP says.
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