Mozambique Post Office unable to pay its debts
The Mozambican post office cannot pay its debts, and wants the government to take care of them.
According to the new chairman of the post office board, Benjamim Pequenino, the debt stands at around nine billion meticais (about 378,000 US dollars).
Pequenino told reporters that his top priority is to pay off wage arrears, which amount to rather more than 900 million meticais. Thus postal workers in Gaza, Inhambane and Cabo Delgado provinces have not received their wages for the past four months, and those in Zambezia for two months. This situation has been blamed on mismanagement by the previous board.
“We can’t pay the debt – that much is clear”, said Pequenino. “The debt of nine billion is unpayable, the company can’t support it. But I am most concerned with our colleagues in the provinces who have gone for months without wages”.
Pequenino was speaking in Maputo on Wednesday at the launch of a new postal service, “Correio Azul” (Blue Post), which is a priority service, with a speed of delivery somewhere in between normal mail and express mail. It is clearly based on a service in Portugal which has exactly the same name. Initially this service will only be available inside Mozambique, and for letters or parcels weighing up to two kilos.
A normal letter, weighing up to 20 grams, costs 6,000 meticais to send and should arrive at a destination within the country inside five clear days. Express mail bears a minimum charge of 205,000 meticais, and is supposed to arrive within a day, for local mail, or two days for inter-city mail.
The minimum charge for “Correio Azul” is 25,000 meticais, and letters distributed by this service should arrive within two days, in the same city, or three days for inter-city mail.
“Correio Azul”, Pequenino said, was “an attempt to respond to those clients who are not satisfied with the normal service, but who are unable to pay for the express service”.
Pequenino claimed that “Correio Azul” is part of the solution to the postal service’s problems. He hoped it would bring in enough money to cover domestic expenses, while the board awaits the conclusions of a “Study on the Postal Sector” recently ordered by the government.
Pequenino said that the new post office management is working to correct the problems inherited from his predecessors.
He wanted to make the postal service rapid and efficient, and recover the good public image it once had.
He added that with the development of new information technologies, the post office needs to be more aggressive, ensure that mail reaches its destination rapidly, and in particular guarantee security in its parcels service.
But there is nothing Pequenino can do about the decline in letter writing caused by e-mail. The director for the international area of the Portuguese post office, Teresa Serra, who attended the Wednesday ceremony, pointed out that the fall in demand for postal services, caused by this technological revolution, had occurred all over the world.
She said that her company will try to help the Mozambican post office win clients, particularly among young people. But this will not be through traditional services. The Portuguese post office is promising to help build telecentres and internet kiosks to be run by its Mozambican counterpart. This proposal will go to the two governments for a final decision.
