Government-by-Government Assessments: Mozambique
The government made significant progress by making topline information on debt obligations, including bilateral debt and state-owned enterprise debt, publicly available within a reasonable period of time. During the review period, the government did not publish its enacted budget within a reasonable period of time. It did make its executive budget proposal and end-of-year report publicly available online. Publicly available budget documents provided an incomplete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams, especially allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises, which generally did not have publicly available audited financial statements. The government maintained off-budget accounts not subject to audit or oversight. For portions of the budget that were relatively complete, information was generally considered reliable. The supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence. It reviewed the government’s accounts, and its reports were published within a reasonable period of time. The criteria and procedures for natural resource extraction were specified in law and appeared to be followed in practice. The government published basic information on natural resource extraction awards. The country is in the process of establishing a sovereign wealth fund that discloses its source of funding and general approach to withdrawals. Mozambique’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- publishing its enacted budget within a reasonable period of time;
- ensuring budget documents include more detailed information on allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises;
- making audited financial statements for significant, large state-owned enterprises publicly available; and
- subjecting off-budget accounts to adequate audit and oversight.