Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambican Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, has called for accountability if it is found that officials are indeed involved in embezzlement and other corrupt schemes at the public-owned company Mozambique Airlines (LAM).
Maleiane’s position agrees with the statement issued recently by the LAM trade union committee, which demands accountability for all those allegedly involved in embezzlement of 3.2 million dollars, as reported by Fly Modern Ark (FMA), the South African company which was hired by the government to bring LAM into profitability and rescue it from bankruptcy.
However, the LAM top management denied accusations of embezzlement raised by FMA, which include illegal payments via POS (point of sale) machines, installed at sales points, to the personal accounts of members of LAM’s management.
According to the Prime Minister, who was speaking to reporters in Maputo on Sunday, if it is proven that management rules have been violated, there is room to hold those involved accountable.
“If the management rules have been broken, this has to be corrected, and there are legal and financial instruments for resolving the problem”, saod Maleiane. “The important thing is that we have a solution, if there is indeed any malicious intent in this process. We have the institutions that deal with this problem. So we have to help the company [FMA] and the LAM managers find the right path”.
Maleiane also said that the government is endeavoring to make LAM a model company, although the current financial situation has been harming the company’s operations.
“We have to realize that LAM is a company that may have good and bad times. The important thing is to identify the problem and solve it. That’s how it has to be, especially when it’s a public company, it has to be the model. That’s the effort the government is making to find a way for the company to return to how it was in the past”, the Prime Minister said.
Under the FMA administration, the company resumed direct flights from Maputo to Lisbon, after an interruption of 12 years. It has also acquired its first Boeing 737-300 freighter, in order to meet the demand for the transport of goods.
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