MOZAMBIQUE: Corrupt Tax Officers Caught Red-Handed

Mozambique’s Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC) has arrested two officers of the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT) for extortion.

According to a release from the GCCC, the incident occurred on Wednesday in Maputo, where the two officers were auditing a transport company.

They told the company managers that the irregularities they had found meant that the company should pay a fine of seven million meticais (about 150,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates). But there would be no fine at all, if the company paid the tax officers a bribe of 196,000 meticais.

The corrupt officials believed this had worked – but somebody in the company made an anonymous phone call to the GCCC.

The result was that, when the two tax officers came to collect the bribe, they found the GCCC waiting for them, and they were promptly arrested.

AIM