Sino-Congolese contract: "Stop politicizing the Sicomines affair"
“We send a message to all those who want to do political recovery of the Sicomines affair: stop.
The General Inspectorate of Finance has produced a technical report.
This mission started 6 months ago.
It is not because there are elections today that we have to stop working", declares, guest of the Special Edition on Top Congo FM, Jules Alingete, head of the services of the General Inspectorate of Finances (IGF), about the "misguided sons of the DRC" who accompanied (by passivity or complicity) Chinese companies in the selling off of natural resources within the framework of what were then called "Chinese contracts" signed in April 2008.
"Let those who are agitated, stop. My brothers Congolese politicians who were agitating, you are not concerned. Do not be afraid.
Be with us to defend the interests of the Congo, don't play into the hands of these Chinese companies who put forward to make believe that this is a problem between Congolese.
Stop your useless agitations”, he urges.
"The message I send them is that we have no problem with you. We understand the circumstances in which you acted. We say to you (simply): Congo first", reassures Jules Alingete.
"The report is technical and can be summed up in one thing: what we were promised in the agreement has not been given to us. We are only asking that we be able to give it and that in addition, we revisit the agreement to rebalancing the benefits, just that," he insists.
The Chinese didn't execute the convention alone?
"There are also many Congolese, Congolese structures that have intervened, but I do not want to put them on the dock.
I would simply like these Congolese to be with us to ask, in the interest of Congo, the Chinese side, its companies, to fulfill their commitments.
A point, a line", pleads the chief inspector.
“We ask Chinese companies involved in the convention to fulfill their commitment.
Subsequently, we ask these companies to sit down with the agency responsible for monitoring and coordinating their activities to examine the review of this contract which is totally unbalanced", he explains.
What about the status quo?
And in the case of China or at least its companies did not move one iota, Jules Alingete begins by noting "that the Congolese government has done what it promised.
They (Chinese companies) have promised infrastructure, it's a commitment.
They have to keep it (as long as they) recognize that we are at 822 million dollars instead of 3 billion over 15 years”.
And it is precisely "where we can say that the Congolese have abused, it is in the 822 million dollars of infrastructure that we estimate to have been overcharged.
In this Congolese part, there is the Agency for Major Works which was responsible for monitoring", he reveals, before returning to the hypothesis where the Chinese part does not run.
"The operating permit is renewable by the government", begins by recalling this senior public official.
Already, “next year, it will have to be renewed.
The government may not renew the permits.
These are coercive measures to lead to negotiation.
It's not just that (need to know).
Today, they no longer have exemptions.
There are other measures we can take," he said.
The political class, a misfortune
However, "these are partners and we are within the framework of a convention.
Let's not set fires.
We ask them (simply) to fulfill their commitment and that we can examine the agreement to see which provisions will have to be revisited", resumes Jules Alingete before going there with his clear and absolutely sharp peak: "The misfortune of the Congolese people is their political class".
Certainly, "it is true that in this political class, we have values, but the majority, nearly 90% of the people who are part of the Congolese political class promote mediocrity, to paraphrase Cardinal Mosengwo", formulates he.
“I go even further: they promote hooliganism.
That is to say public governance by corrupt people.
We must be patriots, we must love Congo.
If we do not defend the interests of Congo, there is no one who will come to do it in our place", he says.
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Chinese contract unpacked: Jules Alingete scratches and puts pressure, Sicomines already drops 700 million dollars!
Jules Alingete played and won the DR-Congo, which lost billions in the deal with China presented as the "contract of the century" which should be "win-win".
The investigation into this contract, carried out by the brigade of inspectors of the General Inspectorate of Finance -IGF- under the leadership of Alingete, revealed a flagrant imbalance in favor of Chinese interests.
The gain of the Grouping of Chinese companies -GEC-, born following the conclusion of the "contract of the century" in 2008, was evaluated at USD 76 billion by the IGF while the DR-Congo only obtained USD 3 billion.
In the end, revealed "Jeune Afrique", which got its hands on a still confidential part of the audit submitted to President Félix Tshisekedi, the Chinese side has only mobilized USD 4.47 billion in 14 years, of which only 822 million were used to finance the construction of infrastructures, moreover "invisible".
The IGF report caused an outcry on the web, not without putting "pressure" on the negotiations started last November between the GEC and the DR-Congolese State, represented by the Agence de pilotage de coordination et de follow-up of collaboration agreements -APSC.
The latter, created in March 2022 to monitor the various collaboration agreements between the DR-Congo and its private partners, replaced the Coordination and Monitoring Office of the Sino-Congolese Program - BCPSC.
The Director General of the APSC, Freddy Yody Chembo, during his speech on the airwaves of Top Congo, announced that the Sino-Congolese mines -SICOMINES-, one of the companies of the GEC, will release a total of USD 700 million this year for the construction of infrastructure for the benefit of the DR-Congo.
Thanks to this same intervention, Freddy Yody Chembo acknowledged that “the IGF report has increased the pressure” on Chinese companies which have already dropped USD 500 million while negotiations continue.
This sum will be released in two stages: first USD 350 million and then USD 150 million.
It will, according to the director general of the APSC, be injected into projects “to be carried out by the Ministry of Infrastructure”.
The DR-Congolese party, he said, has requested an additional USD 200 million which will bring the total amount to be paid into the Treasury account this year to USD 700 million.
"The negotiations being in progress, it is likely to go beyond these 700 million which will allow the Republic to regain its rights", an observer told AfricaNews, while welcoming the "work of the titans" carried out by Jules Alingete, head of the General Inspectorate of Finance -IGF-, to "give a necessary push to the negotiations so that the Chinese contract can really benefit the DR-Congolese".
For Alingete and its inspectors, this contract, in its initial form, represented “unacceptable economic colonization”.
This, given that the country has lost 3,500 km of road, as many kilometers of railway, 31 hospitals and 145 health centers.
These various infrastructures should be built by Chinese companies in return for the exploitation of the DR-Congolese mines.
They should cost 6.5 billion.
To President Félix Tshisekedi, the IGF handed over a list of requirements to correct the “glaring imbalance” found in the Chinese contract.
These include the revision of the distribution of the capital of SICOMINES by taking into account the value of the deposits provided by Gécamines, the revaluation of the amount of infrastructure to be financed by the Chinese party to USD 20 billion USD.
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Chinese contract: ODEP suspected of wanting to play a dirty trick on candidate Moise Katumbi
After the revelation, by the General Inspectorate of Finance -IGF- of the leonine and unbalanced nature of the Chinese contract, the Observatory of Public Expenditure -ODEP- hastened to publish a list of former officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo involved, according to the NGO, in the signing of this deal.
Cited among the latter, Moïse Katumbi, former governor of the former province of Katanga, never negotiated or signed this contract, reacted a member of his entourage, describing the copy of the ODEP as a sham and fanciful.
“How could a governor sign a negotiated contract between the government of the Republic and Chinese companies?
In what capacity would he have done it?
This was in no way within his remit, even if the minerals covered by this contract are buried in the subsoil of the province of which Katumbi was the governor at the time of the signing, "said this close friend of the former Gov' , convinced that the ODEP has poured into misinformation and a political undermining campaign targeting a candidate for President of the Republic, demanding a public apology from the leaders of this NGO.
"If the ODEP does not retract itself with regard to Katumbi, we will deduce that its leaders wanted to take advantage of the IGF report to play a dirty trick on a candidate for President of the Republic", says, for his part, a Katumbist deputy.
While the ODEP also involved him in this soap opera of the signing of the Chinese contract, Augustin Matata Ponyo was quick to defend himself.
“I have never signed Chinese contracts,” he said.
Also launched in the December 2023 presidential race, Matata Ponyo recalled that these contracts "were signed in 2008" when he was director general of the Central Coordination Office -Bceco- "and not Minister of Finance" .
He clarified that the execution of these contracts was done exclusively by the Chinese Contracts Monitoring Office which depended on the presidency and not on the government.
“I have never signed Chinese contracts. They were signed in 2008 when I was D.G of Bceco and not minister. Finances.
The execution of these contracts was done exclusively by the Chinese Contracts Monitoring Office which depended on the Presidency and not on the Government,” he wrote.
Chinese contracts: "Yes to the revision, No to the confrontation between the great powers in the DRC", Adolphe Muzito
“Adolphe Muzito, potential presidential candidate for 2023, is in favor of a revision that “guarantees the rights of investors and the Congolese people” and opposes any confrontation, around natural resources, between major powers in the DRC. , which would gain nothing.
Passing through Brussels recently, in an interview granted to the South-China Morning Post, the former Congolese Prime Minister, estimates that the agreement of 6 billion US dollars for which, out of the 3 billion planned for infrastructures, "only 800 million dollars have been disbursed, but still no infrastructure in sight…an injustice”, reads the article, below.
Chinese contracts in the DRC are again under criticism.
This time, they come from the former budget minister and former Congolese Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito under whom these agreements – between the Congolese government and a group of Chinese companies – were signed in 2008.
Passing through Brussels, in an interview granted to the South-China Morning Post, the former Congolese Prime Minister, estimated that the 6 billion US dollar agreement for which, out of the 3 billion planned for infrastructure, "only 800 millions of dollars have been disbursed, but still no infrastructure in sight… an injustice”.
Adolphe Muzito, potential presidential candidate for 2023, is in favor of a revision that "guarantees the rights of investors and the Congolese people" and opposes any confrontation, around natural resources, between the great powers in the DRC, who would gain nothing.
His criticisms repeat the conclusions reached by NGOs and the Congolese government, which had noted the large lack of execution suffered by the infrastructure component compared to the mining component of these agreements.
Chinese contracts: no one in the DRC assumes responsibility until then
The so-called Sino-Congolese contracts signed between a group of Chinese companies (GEC) and the Congolese Government having the imperium in 2008 could not succeed, according to the report of the IGF (General Inspectorate of Finance).
In exchange for the minerals worth 12 billion USD, the infrastructure concerned has not all been delivered.
It was about the construction of 5 thousand social housing, 145 health centers in all the territories of the country, two universities, 2 hydroelectric dams (Katende and Kakobola), the rehabilitation of the airports of Bukavu and Goma, 31 hospitals and 3700 km of rail.
Intervened in 2008, the Chinese contracts are today without paternity on the side of the DRC.
The influential living authorities pass the buck.
Two characters who spoke on behalf of the President of the said period have already died.
Pierre Lumbi and Pr Samba Kaputo are no longer of this world.
Meanwhile, Moïse Ekanga, who managed this file as the main manager of the BCPSC (Office of Coordination and Monitoring of the Sino-Congolese Program), leaves several gray areas, speaking of these contracts.
During a Top Congo FM broadcast, the now national deputy did not satisfy the curiosity of interviewing him on the botched work of the tourism road.
For him, the person appointed to respond well on this road axis is the Agency for Major Works.
This, to the great astonishment of the journalist who did not fail to remind him that he was coordinator of the structure, today embedded in APSC, Steering Agency, coordination of monitoring of collaboration agreements.
Another illustrious figure of the time, Augustin Matata Ponyo dit Mapon said he never signed Chinese contracts.
For, they were signed in 2008, when he was CEO of BCECO.
He also added that the execution of this contract was done exclusively by the BCPSC which, he adds, depended on the Presidency and not on the Government.
Adolphe Muzito, who became Prime Minister from the Ministry of the Budget in replacement of Antoine Gizenga, emphasizes having found the Sino-Congolese contracts.
The President of Nouvel Élan must know something to have given way to Augustin Matata Ponyo in 2012.
Moïse Katumbi Chapwe, former Governor of Katanga who benefited from these nebulous contracts following the massive presence of the Chinese in the Mining, is curiously not involved according to his statements on the net and also taken up by certain media.
To hear the statements of key figures of the time, no one wants to assume their responsibilities in these contracts which generated 10 billion USD for the Chinese private party and less than 1 billion, or 830 million USD.
In addition to the unrest noted among former FCC members, the IGF report has increased pressure on the side of GEC, which intends to pay 500 million USD to the Government for infrastructure. APSC, which is working on it, previously held on to an additional 200 million USD.
