Africa-Press – Mozambique. The prominent anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), has accused Mozambican President Daniel Chapo of violating the law on Public Probity by accepting “millionaire offers” during his recent visit to the southern province of Gaza.
The “millionaire offers” were announced by the Governor of Gaza, Margarida Mapandzene, at a rally. The offers in question are “10 kilos of cashew nuts, 250 kilos of oranges, 250 kilos of cassava, one tonne of rice, two pigs, 85 kilos of fish, six goats, 10 sheep and 20 head of cattle.” As listed, these goods are not worth “millions” in any currency.
CIP submitted on Monday a report to the Central Commission for Public Ethics (CCEP) protesting against the offers, because “the act seriously violates the provisions of Article 41 of the Law on Public Probity Law, which states that public servants must not, in the performance of their duties, demand or receive benefits or gifts, directly or through an intermediary, from natural or legal entities, whether Mozambican or foreign.”
“As a matter of ethics, the President is obliged to return the assets with which he has unlawfully enriched himself”, adds the document.
Although the president has said that he would donate the goods offered to disadvantaged people and to the soldiers fighting Islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, “the act does not cancel out its illegality.”
The offer of goods to the President, or to other visiting officials, may be illegal – but it is also standard practice, as is the President’s promise that he will not use the food himself, but pass it on to vulnerable sectors of society.
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