In the DRC, the Central Bank explains itself after the publication for the first time on its website of the report on the audit of its accounts per. December 31, 2019. It was a requirement of the International Monetary Fund. This report is produced by the Deloitte company, but for civil society it is far from providing the expected transparency.
With our special correspondent in Kinshasa, Sonia Rolley
Central Bank claims to have had its reports audited every year by a large international company, but the results had never been published. Only some were included in the annual report of the Central Bank of Congo.
“Every year, when you look towards the end of our report, towards the administration part, which talks about the financial situation at the Central Bank, you will see that our accounts are certified and that there is therefore a statement from the auditor. The statement has always been an unqualified certification of the central bank’s accounts, ”assures Jean-Louis Kayembe, CEO of BCC.
The audit of the central bank reveals the existence of about thirty sub-accounts in the general government account, containing hundreds of millions of dollars. From reading their titles, some have no purpose today. Why not have them closed?
For Jean-Louis Kayembe, the answer is simple: “Sub-accounts exist in all accounts in the world. So it is not bad at all to have sub-accounts. And we do not have the power to close them without the permission of the principal. ”
In 2017, the BCC had in vain asked the Treasury Department to close 24 of those dormant or inactive sub-accounts, which already contained more than $ 300 million.
With regard to Burundi’s and Rwanda’s claims on the Central Bank of Congo, there have been attempts to settle this debt since 1997, the last date two years ago. In 2018, a deadline was even set with Burundi, but it was never met. This debt was linked to imbalances in trade balances within the economic maritime countries of the Great Lakes countries that once had their own clearing house.
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