Probe into ‘unaudited and unexplained’ funds

Mozambican officials have launched an investigation after an audit raised questions over secret government loans. The country's prosecutor's office on Saturday said the audit, by forensic accountants Kroll, revealed the $500m gap from a total of $2bn in loans. Kroll was called in after news emerged in April last year that the government had secretly borrowed $2bn between 2012 and 2014 to fund a coastal protection project. A report on the Lusaka Social site note that a commission of inquiry found that the government had broken the law when it failed to seek parliamentary clearance for the loans. ‘Until the inconsistencies are resolved, and satisfactory documentation is provided, at least $500m of expenditure of a potentially sensitive nature remains unaudited and unexplained,’ the report concluded.