The Court of Auditors promises to hunt down predators of public finances
The president of the Court of Auditors, Jimmy Munganga, announced this Thursday, March 9, the hunt for predators of public finances.
It also promises to fight against corruption whose perpetrators are recruited among ministers, public officials and sometimes shine in the award of public contracts without respecting the rules.
They expose themselves to sanctions when the time comes.
He said it on the occasion of the judicial return of the Court of Auditors to the People's Palace in the presence of the President of the Republic, the ministers who are members of the government, the deputies and senators and all the heads of the constituted bodies of the country. .
Jimmy Munganga focused his speech on the role of the Court in repressing mismanagement.
Detecting the mismanagement, the first president of the Court deplores the delay in the transmission of certain reports, the finance law voted and that on the rendering of accounts to the Court.
“These faults and so many others have been erected into management mode,” he said.
As regards the Court's annual report, it highlights the seriousness of the mismanagement.
It contains recommendations proposing certain corrections, informs the public about the management of public finances.
A second ceremony concerned the presentation to the Head of State, the two Presidents of Parliament and the Prime Minister of the annual report of the Court's activities for the 2020-2021 financial years.
EU and DRC announce deal on rare minerals like copper and cobalt
The European Union and the Democratic Republic of Congo have committed to launch negotiations for a partnership on the exploitation of rare and strategic minerals, including copper and cobalt.
A so-called win-win memorandum of understanding and a roadmap will be announced in the coming months around cooperation and investment projects in a sector dominated in the DRC by China.
The EU is counting on this partnership to accelerate its ecological transition.
In order to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality in 2050, the EU has embarked on a so-called historic shift in its industrial production and wants to strengthen its supply policy for rare and strategic minerals.
The other challenge is to reduce its dependence on certain countries like China, where these minerals are currently processed, explain EU sources.
The challenge is also significant for the DRC, which aims to develop a local value chain and a market around the battery, electric vehicle and renewable energy industry.
A position that corresponds to the EU's offer, according to Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships:
“We want to create value in the DRC, local added value.
Not just exporting your raw materials to Finland, Europe and then refining them in Europe.
According to her, the approach will be different from that proposed by other partners of the DRC, such as China not to mention:
“We don't want to create dependency, nor do we want neocolonialism.
We really want to create local value and we want to create a win-win partnership.
According to the EU ambassador posted in Kinshasa, the advantage for the DRC is also to benefit from possible support for the production of green energy for its industries.
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Chinese contract: the masterminds of overbilling soon before the bar
The file related to the overbilling of the infrastructures within the framework of the Chinese contract takes another turn.
The Attorney General at the Gombe Court of Appeal, Robert Kumbu has opened a legal file against the ACGT and the Chinese Contract Coordination Office.
The approach of justice confirms Jules Alingete and his men who concluded the fiasco in the execution of the deal concluded between the Congolese State and the group of Chinese companies.
A new step has been taken in the hot file of the Chinese contract.
After the investigation carried out with professionalism by the General Inspectorate of Finance, the justice system gets involved.
She wants to see clearly.
Millions of dollars that were to be used for work for the good of the community, have unfortunately been swallowed up following the greed of some Congolese.
Unthinkable, according to judicial sources, that colossal sums are embezzled by Congolese to the detriment of the general interest.
Under this contract, almost all infrastructure was overcharged.
In front of the media, the interested parties had almost water in their mouths to explain to the public the excessive cost of the work and their poor execution.
Sometimes the work carried out did not even cost the 30% of the funds disbursed. In public opinion, anger is rising.
Congolese interviewed from all over the country encourage justice to go all the way to dismantle this mafia network.
Alingete crowned for his work of excavation in the Chinese contract
In an indictment of information, the body of the law, Robert Kumbu Phanazu seized the policeman of public finances Jules Alingete to appoint financial inspectors and experts who will work jointly with judicial inspectors and those of the judicial police to carry out new investigations at the headquarters of Sicomines in the commune in Kinshasa.
They must obtain all the proof of payment for the work carried out with the approvals given by the Congolese Agency for Major Works.
From the latter, they are mandated to collect the works contracts, the final accounts of the works, the works acceptance reports and the control mission reports for each project.
In addition, the investigators will go down to the field to carry out the counter-expertise of all the work carried out, to establish and evaluate all the cases of overbilling and the methods implemented with a view to its accomplishment, to establish and determine individual responsibilities in the overbilling and alleged embezzlement of public funds, to take any other legal action likely to enlighten them on the file.
Attorney General Robert Kumbu says he is eagerly awaiting the report.
Information in its possession indicates over-invoicing for infrastructure works carried out under this collaboration agreement of April 22, 2008, known as the “Chinese contract” between the Congolese government and the group of Chinese companies (GEC).
The finding is doubly catastrophic.
First, there are unfinished works yet they have been fully funded, then there is a report of the non-execution of the works but which were already funded.
The investigating magistrate notes that the overbilling denounced comes from several artifices implemented during the conclusion of contracts for infrastructure works and their execution.
These include, according to PG Robert Kumbu, the exaggeration of unit costs and the rates of certain normal facts, the prohibition in the cost of works of headings that do not exist in contracts such as "sum to be worth ”.
According to the body of the law, all these facts suggest misappropriation of public funds because the investments of the said works are funds lent to the Congolese State which reimburses them with interest, on its minerals sold to the joint venture Sicomins.
DRC-Zambia: an agreement for joint operation of border facilities in Kasumbalesa
A cooperation agreement for the joint operation of Kasumbalesa border facilities over a 24-hour window has been signed to facilitate trade between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, a statement said on Friday. , the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
This agreement was reached at the end of the meeting of two Heads of State which was held recently in Ethiopia.
"The signing of this agreement took place on Wednesday at the Kasumbalesa border between the two parties, represented on the DRC side, by the Minister of Foreign Trade, Jean Lucien Bussa and the Minister of Commerce and Trades, Chipota Mulenga", underlines the press release.
This agreement was facilitated by the United States of America promising to do everything possible to support the two countries in the creation of an electric battery manufacturing plant.
About the deal
The source also notes that this agreement stipulates that all border agencies will start operating on a 24-hour window, to be implemented one week after signing.
The two countries have agreed to allow all types of commercial goods to pass through the Kasumbalesa-Kipushi-Mukambo border facilities.
Zambia has, for its part, agreed to modernize the border facilities at Kasumbalesa, bordering Kipushi, Sakania and Mukamba, underlines the same source.
Among other agreed measures, Zambia will have to reconsider night restrictions on the movement of commercial goods to be implemented within a week of signing.
The DRC, for its part, will have to put a new building at the border of Kasumbalesa, for efficient processing of documents.
It has also undertaken to modernize car parks and risky sites, to build a ring road on the Congolese side, added the same source.
Zambia will hold the next meeting in the DRC, at the request of the latter, on the day to be communicated by the Congolese authority, to go and cement more agreements aimed at benefiting both nations.
The signing of this agreement aims to end the traffic pier at the border of Kasumbalesa, in order to improve trade not only for the two countries but also for the whole region of the development community of the Southern Africa (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
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