In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (IGF) announced yesterday, Wednesday 18 November, the results of five investigative missions. As a result, scandals over alleged embezzlement of public funds, especially in connection with teachers’ salaries or the Bukanga Lonzo agro-industrial park, were considered the biggest investment scandal for ex-President Joseph Kabila’s regime.
with our Kinshasa correspondent, Pascal Mulegwa
Investigators from this institution during the Republic’s presidency discovered the evaporation of several million dollars. But yesterday, in front of the press, the IGF did not quote the names of those responsible.
As for the agro-industrial park Bukangalonzo, whose work was launched with great pomp in 2014, the results from the IGF compromise.
Amount paid out: $ 285 million, state lost amount, $ 205 million, lists Jules Alingete, Financial Controller. The Directorate – General notes that the failure of this project was already planned from its point of view. “
A quarrel that the inspectors also attribute to congestion when purchasing agricultural equipment and inputs. Payments have even been tracked. “80% of congested payments were submitted to an account in South Africa where accomplices met regularly to share the booty.”
Six suspects have been identified, including a foreign person. Three of the five Congolese are covered by parliamentary immunities, while another is on the run, according to the head of the IGF. “We see more and more in our control missions that predators, once they have completed their crime, buy themselves – with the means diverted in this way – the votes to be (elected) in parliament and thus sit safe from prosecution!”
In terms of teachers’ salaries, the IGF has failed to track large sums, estimated at more than $ 32 million: funds diverted either through the creation of fictitious schools and education or through false invoices to justify certain expenditures.
► Also read : In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the General Inspectorate of Finance on all fronts
The Congolese NGO ACAJ asked the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation to initiate legal investigations “as soon as possible” and to take “precautionary measures” against the alleged perpetrators.
.
