PGR abstém-se de os acusar Ex-administradores do Banco Austral voltam a escapar

Por Emídio Beúla

A PGR ao nível da cidade de Maputo acaba de mandar arquivar os autos de instrução preparatória sob o processo Nº53/A/PRC/2009, abstendo-se de acusar Octávio Filiano Muthemba, Jamú Sulemane Hassan, Omaia Salimo e Álvaro Julião Massinga, então arguidos do chamado “Caso Banco Austral”.

Esta decisão, que caiu como uma bomba em certos círculos, é interpretada como falta de vontade política de investigar para apurar os verdadeiros responsáveis pela morte do economista Siba-Siba Macuácua e da gestão calamitosa do Banco Austral no seio dos gestores moçambicanos. As baterias viraram para os malaios.

O Banco Austral entrou na rota de bancarrota por fraudes e créditos malparados na ordem dos 150 milhões de USD quando estava sob gestão dos malaios da Southern Bank Berhad (SBB) e de alguns moçambicanos com ligações à nomenklatura.

Estes empréstimos empurraram o extinto Banco Austral a uma situação de falência técnica devido à pesada carteira de crédito malparado, originado por uma gestão danosa da sua Administração que concedeu créditos e financiamentos incompatíveis com as disponibilidades financeiras da instituição. O SAVANA tem evidências do profundo envolvimento de alguns dos administradores em práticas de má gestão no Banco Austral.

Dois despachos

Lembre-se que após a detenção de Parente Júnior, em Dezembro de 2008, a PGR exarou, a 19 de Janeiro de 2009, um despacho de abstenção a Octávio Muthemba, Álvaro Massinga, ex-membro do Conselho Fiscal do Banco Austral; Jamú Hassan e Arlete Patel, ex-administradores do Banco Austral, no processo do assassinato de António Siba Siba Macuácua. Estavam igualmente na lista dos que deixaram de ser suspeitos do MP no assassinato de Siba-Siba, Almirante Banze, Mário da Costa, José Costa Rodrigues Soares e Manso Finiche Juízo, Jorge Manuel Ferreira da Costa Marques, José Manuel Lino Barroca, Jerry Hopa Manganhela, António Fabião Maugalisso, Henrique Paulo Morrepa, Pio João Malemba, Abubacar Ismael, Carlitos Francisco Armação, Ilídio Miguel Laque e Momad Assif Satar.

Semana passada, a mesma procuradoria voltou a exarar um despacho de abstenção de Octávio Muthemba, Álvaro Massinga, Jamú Hassan e Omaia Salimo, no processo de gestão danosa do Banco Austral, intentado pelo Banco de Moçambique (BM). Abriu um processo autónomo contra os gestores malaios, uma atitude que é descrita como uma estratégia para desviar atenções dos verdadeiros saqueadores daquela instituição bancária...

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No prosecutions for Banco Astral plunder

By Joseph Hanlon

No Mozambicans will be prosecuted for plundering and bankrupting Banco Austral a decade ago, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) announced on 1 April. This follows a decision last year that no one would be prosecuted for the 2001 assassination of Antonio Siba-Siba Macuacua, the Bank of Mozambique’s head of banking supervision who took over as head of the bank after it collapsed.

It ends a nine year struggle between Frelimo, which refused to hold accountable anyone from the party elite, and donors and civil society which fought to keep the issue alive. Donors forced a forensic audit of Banco Austral and made the bank collapse and murder symbolic governance issues, raising them each year in negotiations with the government -- in the end, to no avail.

As a condition of IMF support, the then People’s Development Bank (BPD) was privatised in 1997 to the Southern Bank Berhad (SBB) of Malaysia (30.4%) and Invester (29.6%), a Mozambican company headed by Octavio Muthemba, former Industry Minister and chair of SPI - Gestão e Investimentos, the Frelimo party holding company. The state kept 40% of the renamed Banco Austral. Through a mix of direct theft and bad loans to themselves and others in the Frelimo elite, the bank was drained of at least $150 million and then handed back to the state in 2001. Siba-Siba was named head, and tried to collect on some of the loans and prepare the bank for reprivatisation to ABSA of South Africa, now Barclays. In an unsuccessful attempt to stop the sale, Siba-Siba was murdered at the bank’s offices on 11 August 2001.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) on 1 April said it would not prosecute Muthemba, who was chair of the Banco Austral board of directors, Jamu Hassan and Omaia Salimo, who were members of the board, and Alvaro Massinga, who sat on the bank’s supervisory board, on the grounds that they did not take part in the direct day-to-day management of the bank.

Although the four received loans for themselves and their companies, knowing this was in violation of both the law (Lei 28/91) and the bank’s Credit Policy Manual, both of which banned loans to managers and directors, the PGR does not feel this warrants prosecution. Muthemba, Hassan, and Massinga each had personal and company loans in excess of $2 mn from Banco Austral, and these were not being repaid. The acts of the four men are “to be condemned on moral and ethical grounds”, the PGR states, but any response must come from the Bank of Mozambique, not the PGR. And it is for Barclays or the Mozambique government to try to collect on the outstanding loans.

The PGR does suggest that three Malaysian managers of Banco Austral should be prosecuted, but there is little chance of getting them back to Maputo for trial.

In a series of article written in 2001, I quote a senior Mozambican banker saying "it was impossible for the Banco Austral board of directors not to know that frauds were occurring.” The original series of articles, which gives detailed background to the bank scandals, is titled “Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs “ and is on  www.open.ac.uk/technology/mozambique/pics/d53732.doc 

An attached file has AIM and Savana articles on the PGR decision.

Obs: read the series of articles "Killing the goose that laid the golden eggs"  in Portuguese here (Matando a galinha dos ovos de ouro).  

Detidos suspeitos de assassínio de António Siba-Siba?

Segundo a Rádio Moçambique (RM), na sua edição das 10:00 horas, foram detidos ontem, três indivíduos indiciados no assassínio de António Siba-Siba Macuácua.


Será verdade?