Mozambican government confirms hidden debts

Mozambican government on Tuesday confirmed the hidden public debts with ProIndicus and other institutions allegedly to protect national and strategic infrastructures including the economic exclusive zone, said Mouzinho Saide, the government spokesperson.

The statement, issued in Maputo after the weekly session of the council of ministers, is the first official public position by the government following information released by international media indicating the existence of the debts of over 1 billion U.S. dollars.

"The guarantees were issued in favor of the companies ProIndicus in 2013 at 622 million U.S. dollars and the company Mozambique Asset Management in 2014 at 535 million dollars," said Saide.

The government said that ProIndicus, for instance, was created in a period that there was high security risk such as piracy on the sea.

According to the spokesman, these threats and the need to guarantee activities from companies operating in the prospect of oil and gas and those operating in the economic exclusive zone, led to the acquisition of mechanisms that would allow an integrated protection system such as different ships, maritime patrolling airplanes, radars distributed along the Mozambican coast and satellites contracts.

The government said that there was an additional bilateral loan with the Interior Ministry acquired in 2009 and 2014 at 221.4 million U.S. dollars, and the authorities promised to give more details over the debts in future.

The brief is given after the Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho de Rosario visited Washington with a delegation from the Ministry of Finance and Economy as well as the central bank, to clarify all allegations around the debts with Bretton Woods institutions.