Maputo, May 8, 2025 (Lusa) - South African company Fly Modern Ark (FMA), which led the first attempt to restructure Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM), said on Thursday that it was open to cooperating in the forensic audit of the Mozambican airline's accounts.
"The previous Mozambican administration legally and transparently appointed FMA to lead the provisional restructuring of LAM during serious financial and operational instability. At no time has FMA been under investigation. On the contrary, our team has been actively cooperating with the Mozambican authorities and the judiciary," the South African company FMA said in a statement sent to Lusa on Thursday.
An official government source told Lusa on Wednesday that Mozambique's government's decision to proceed with a forensic audit of LAM's accounts for the last ten years, to be completed within six months, is at issue.
"The audit must be completed by October," explained the same source, acknowledging that it will be necessary to “reduce the number of employees” at the flag carrier from the current 800, given the reduced fleet of only four aircraft.
According to FMA, which led a first attempt at restructuring between 2023 and 2024, LAM's problem is linked to alleged "internal networks responsible for theft and mismanagement", accusing the Mozambican flag carrier of violating the agreement between the parties by paying only half of the final bill.
"Due to this breach, FMA was forced to initiate legal proceedings, including the seizure of a residential property in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg [South Africa], valued at three million rand (€146,000). Despite these unresolved financial issues, FMA has reaffirmed its willingness to cooperate with the current Mozambique government, which FMA concluded in the note sent to Lusa.
The contract between FMA and LAM was in force between April 2023 and September 2024, and the South African company was called in to develop a strategy to revitalise the company after years of operational problems related to a reduced fleet and a lack of investment. A number of non-fatal incidents were reported, which experts attributed to inefficient aircraft maintenance.
The president of Mozambique said on 28 April that "foxes and corrupt people" within the state-owned LAM, with "conflicts of interest," are preventing the company from being restructured.
When presenting the results for the first 100 days of his administration, Daniel Chapo denounced people "with conflicts of interest" within the state-owned company, whose goal is to prevent LAM from "having its own aircraft."
"One of the impactful actions we had planned for these 100 days was acquiring three aircraft for LAM. However, when we decided to have at least three aircraft available before 100 days, we discovered that within LAM we were handing foxes to guard a henhouse, or cats to guard mice," he said.
On 5 February, the government authorised the sale of 91% of the state's stake in LAM to state-owned companies, indicating that the proceeds would be used to purchase eight aircraft.
The resolution approved by the Mozambican government stipulates that only three state-owned companies - Hidroelétrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (CFM) and Empresa Moçambicana de Seguros (Emose) - can acquire the state's stake in LAM.
In April, the Mozambican Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) announced the opening of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the signing of an agreement between the FMA and Mozambican entities to restructure the state-owned LAM. It said the investigation into alleged corruption in ticket sales, for which no suspects have yet been named, is ongoing.
EAC/ADB // ADB.
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