Browsing: The legal basis to void Mozambique hidden debt

On May 8th, Mozambican Constitutional Council decided that the acts regarding loans to Mozambican state-owned companies (Proindicus, S.A. and MAM, S.A.) and sovereign guarantees given by Mozambican Government are null, and consequently those loans are void.

Having the Mozambican Constitutional Council considered the debts and the guarantees unconstitutional, it means that they never had juridical existence in Mozambique, fact that is reinforced by the circumstance of both National Assembly (through a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission) and Administrative Court had never accepted them as legal.

Constitutional Council based its decision in the following arguments:

1. Mozambican Government could not concede sovereign guarantees of such amounts, since they were superior to the legally established maximum amounts;
2. to grant them, according with Mozambican Constitution, the Government would need to request a legislative authorization to National Assembly, which did not happened;
3. Mozambican Government also violated Mozambican law when agreed loans that were not concessional, since it