When the South African aviation company Fly Modern Ark was announced as the management partner of the Mozambican airline company, LAM – Late and Maybe as it is derisory referred to owing to its tardiness and inefficiency -, suspicions were raised in the national business circles, with some questioning its management capacity, let alone its ability to re-organise a company in an advanced state of patrimonial and financial decline.
A month later Fly Modern Ark has just announced the recovery of $43.3 million of debt from debtors.
Once again, this gave rise to more suspicions and questionings: how can a new entity recover $43.3 million in a problematic market such as that of aviation and in a country such as Mozambique?
How many millions exactly?
Every day the debt has new contours, and the success of Fly Modern Ark is broadcast with new figures and situations, such as:
- There was no debt collection, only a reconciliation of accounts;
- Only $7 million of the total debt was collected;
- The debt figure magically rose $47.3 million;
- Part of the debt was entered into the company’s liabilities.
Magala
Strangely, Mateus Magala, the Minister of Transport and Communications arrogate to himself the role of spokesperson for the dubious success and doubles down on clarifications that should be the purview of Fly Modern Ark or LAM.
Magala even goes so far as to say that the new managers know more about the company’s accounts than the managers who ran it for years, from the golden to the critical years.
Fly Modern Ark
What kind of miraculous company is this that solves a chronic problem for LAM and the Mozambican state in 30 days?
Of somewhat dubious credentials, the miraculous company may be on the verge of cashing in 10% of the debt collected recovered, only expecting confirmation of the miracle.
Here Magala’s role is dubious and strange because of the direct action in the explanation and defence of the miracle without being aware of the enormous conflict of interest he exposes himself to, especially in his recent appearances: spokesperson for Fly Modern Ark or Minister of Transport and Communications?
With a troubled stint at EDM, Mozambique’s Electricity Company, from .2015 to 2018, where he is said to have bought meters that do not work; paid consultants who did not produce any reports; and where he never advertised any tenders, Magala now appears as part of a process from which he should keep due political and verbal distance, and defend the position of the state and not act as the Noah of Fly Modern Ark, who comes to save LAM from the chronic deluge it has experienced in recent years.
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