By ARNALDO VIEIRA

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Former Mozambique president Armando Guebuza has dodged questions regarding debts incurred during his term in office, effectively placing the blame at the door of his successor.

He told a court in a testimony on Thursday that he did not participate in borrowing because the Operational Command, then led by Filipe Nyusi, was the entity delegated to deal with the matter. Mr Nyusi would later succeed him in power.

Mr Guebuza, 79, testified over the “hidden debt” scandal that stems from loans to three state-owned companies, issued between 2013 and 2014, that were meant to finance a fishing project. However, the debt was hidden from Mozambique’s parliament and other public legal reports, and the funds largely went to paying kickbacks.

"I worked with the Operational Command and they brought the proposals. And that work was done on the basis of trust, he said as he becomes the first Mozambique’s head of state to appear in court to testify since independence.

“I made an order in which I delegated the power of negotiation to the Ministers of Defence and of Interior and to the General Director of the State Secret Intelligence Services”, he added in the court.

The firms — Indicus, Ematum and Mam — took out €1.76 billion ($2 billion) in loans, including from Credit Suisse and Russian lender VTB, to finance maritime surveillance, fishing and shipyard projects.

The loans were secretly endorsed by the government of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front, led then by former President Guebuza, without the knowledge of parliament and the Administrative Court.

The scandal stems from loans to three state-owned companies, issued between 2013 and 2014, that were meant to finance a fishing project. However, the debt was hidden from Mozambique’s parliament and the funds largely went to paying kickbacks.

Justice Efigénio Baptista has declined the Mozambique Bar Association´s request to summon President Filipe Nyusi, who was minister of Defence at the time, to testify.

US officials investigating the scandal have also accused President Nyusi of receiving kickbacks.

Former President Armando Guebuza, who ruled Mozambique between 2005 and 2015, testimony was the last before the closing arguments.

Meanwhile, Former President Guebuza testimony in court started about two hours late as unknown people fired at the electricity power station of the maximum security jail in Maputo, according to government officials it was an attempt to sabotage the hearing.

The perpetrators were carried in two vehicles fled after the prison guard responded by firing.