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The Constitutional Court of Mozambique said on Tuesday that secret government borrowings of hundreds of millions of dollars were void, indicating that they did not need to be reimbursed as part of a decision hailed by the civil society activists of this impoverished country.
The Court's decision focused on one of the secret borrowings – which totaled about $ 2 billion – contracted by the government between 2013 and 2015 for the purported financing of a fishing fleet in the United States. tuna and a maritime surveillance project.
Mozambique has arrested several former officials linked to the scandal, which the United States has described as a vast scheme of fraud and money laundering.
Civil society groups say that borrowing from international banks is illegal and that impoverished Mozambicans should not be burdened with years of heavy repayments.
The constitutional court declared "the nullity of the acts inherent in the loan" – canceling a debt of 850 million dollars contracted by the state-owned tuna fishing company Ematum.
"This decision represents a great victory for the Mozambican citizen," said Denise Namburete of the Budget Monitoring Forum, an organization that brought the case to justice.
"This means that any action by the government on this debt will be a violation of the highest legislative body in the country."
An independent audit revealed that $ 500 million of borrowings, deliberately hidden from the country's parliament and international donors, had been diverted and could not be found.
When the debt was revealed, Mozambique – which relies on donor badistance and is one of the poorest countries in the world – has been plunged into the worst financial crisis in its history.
The United States alleges that at least $ 200 million was spent on bribes and kickbacks, including $ 12 million for former Finance Minister Manuel Chang.
Mozambique has defaulted on debt and repayments could engulf future revenues from natural gas deposits found in the north of the country.
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