The President of the Republic, in his last communication, withdrew the decision to return to face-to-face classes on the 27th of July, to a time when schools are equipped with minimum hygiene conditions. This measure was welcomed by CIP in a positive way, since it is in line with the institutional position that it is necessary to improve the conditions of schools to ensure a minimally safe return to classes.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Public Works and Water Resources, Osvaldo Machatine, two days earlier, was quoted by the press as saying that the rehabilitation of water sources and toilets in schools will take place, within a period of 55 days, to ensure that return to school later this year. The time of approximately two months established by the Government for the rehabilitation of schools presupposes that there will be no public tenders for the award of works, a fact that could represent a high risk of corruption.
The amount of 3.5 billion meticais announced to cover these expenses corresponds to about 120% of the cumulative resources that the Government spent on internal investment expenditures in general education, in the period from 2015 to 2019. Therefore, if in 5 years the Government has not invested with internal resources of this magnitude, will it manage to make this amount, in the midst of the pandemic and in about two months, improve school infrastructure, observing prudent criteria of good management of funds?
