FIRES DESTROY CORRUPTION CASE EVIDENCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MAPUTO 001030 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/03/2018 TAGS: KCOR PGOV PREL MZ SUBJECT: FIRES DESTROY CORRUPTION CASE EVIDENCE REF: MAPUTO 927 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Todd C. Chapman, Reasons 1.4(b+d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Following on the heels of the detention of the former Minister of Interior on corruption charges (reftel),police arrested the chairman of Mozambique,s parastatal airports management company, Airports of Mozambique (ADM) on October 22. The charges include misuse of company funds and numerous illicit purchases of real estate. On October 23, fires broke out simultaneously in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications and Transportation in the offices holding documentary evidence related to the case. Minister of the Presidency Antonio Sumbana told the Charge on October 23 that President Armando Guebuza is firmly committed to fighting corruption, but the recent fires suggest that there are elements in the government working towards criminal ends. All claims from the GRM aside, the worrisome trend of suspicious fires that attempt to destroy key evidence suggest that high-level corruption remains within the government in spite of the several recent arrests. END SUMMARY. -------------- ANOTHER CORRUPTION ARREST -------------- ¶2. (U) On October 22, Mozambican daily newspaper "O Pais" broke a front page story detailing the arrest of Diodino Cambaza, Chairman of the Board for Airports of Mozambique (ADM),the country's airports management company on charges of corruption. The Attorney General had filed the charges on October 21 based on an investigation following a tip from workers at the parastatal company. Allegations had also been detailed publicly in the weekly newspaper Zambeze earlier in October. ¶3. (U) According to police reports, Cambaza allegedly used over 3 million meticais ($125,000) to build a house in Matola (just outside Maputo),and remodel another two houses in the upscale Maputo neighborhoods of Malhangalene and Sommershield--the work on the Sommershield home allegedly cost 12 million meticais ($500,000). The charges indicate that Cambaza also purchased four houses for members of the Maputo Municipal Council valued at $1.11 million (excluding remodeling costs of $30,000 per house). The charges further indicate that Cambaza purchased a house in South Africa for the son of the former Minister of Transport and Communications, Antonio Munguambe valued at 300,000 rand ($30,000). Munguambe was arrested in connection with the Cambaza case on October 22. Cambaza is further believed to have purchased a house for a senior administrator of the parastatal Public Transportation Company of Maputo and is also accused of buying a truck with ADM funds andsending it to his father in the town of Quelimane. -------------- 'COINCIDENTAL' FIRES IN THE MINISTRIES -------------- ¶4. (U) The original whistleblower complaint by ADM employees was received by the inspector general at the Ministry of Finance as well as the Attorney General's office. Just hours after the arrest of Cambaza, on the morning of October 22, a fire broke out on the sixth floor of a Ministry of Finance office building--the same floor that houses the office of the inspector general. The official reason for the Ministry of Finance fire was an electrical short-circuit in an elevator shaft of the building (which was constructed fewer than 5 years ago). A small fire also started almost simultaneously at the Ministry of Transport and Communications. -------------- -------------- MINISTER OF THE PRESIDENCY CONCERNED ABOUT CORRUPTION -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) On October 23, Minister of the Presidency Antonio Sumbana told the Charge that President Armando Guebuza remained firmly committed to confronting corruption. He said that Guebuza, soon after his inauguration in 2005, told his entire cabinet that there would be no 'investigating the past' so as to avoid accusations of persecution of previous administrations. Sumbana said that Guebuza directed his staff to 'look ahead' work to squelch corruption in the present and the future, and to do so without fear of political interference. Sumbana pointed to the public announcement of the arrests of the former Minister of Interior and of the ADM President as proof. He expressed concern however about the fires in the Finance Ministry and elsewhere suggested that indeed, there were negative elements within the administration who were working to their own ends. MAPUTO 00001030 002 OF 002 -------------- -------------- COMMENT: A WORRYING TREND SUGGESTS RISING IMPUNITY -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) A similar fire broke out at the Ministry of Agriculture three weeks ago, following a devastating fire in May 2007 there on the heels of an internal investigation into allegedly corrupt land allocations. Opposition RENAMO party Parliamentarian Manuel de Araujo told Poloff on October 23 that fires following investigations appear to be an alarming trend in Mozambique, with involved parties making sure that there is little evidence left to prosecute, stating that "when crime pays and there is impunity, the incentive is higher than the risks." All claims from the Presidency and the GRM aside, the disturbing trend of suspicious fires attempting to destroy evidence in cases suggest that high-level corruption remains within the government. Chapman