Another great article by Kiki this time addressing The Hidden Percentage: when the investment becomes a payment of corruption.
Part I #InvestiRDC
10/20/30% ghosts for investment in the DRC
By Kiki #Kienge
This series of articles is not a trial, it is an observation: explain an uncommon practice, explain its real mechanisms, show its destructive effects, open the debate without taboo, propose credible alternatives.
Fighting a practice does not start with insult, but with lucidity.
The Hidden Percentage: when the investment becomes a payment of corruption.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, investment does not necessarily begin with a feasibility study, a business plan or an administrative authorization.
For many project initiators, the initial step is elsewhere, in a more informal and discreet way:
- the request for a percentage.
- 20%. Sometimes up to 30%.
A percentage is requested even before the project really exists.
According to some information, one portion would be intended for institutions (ministeries, local administrations...), another for "facilitators" and the last for the one who attracted the investor.
A practice rarely written, but widely known The scene repeats itself, almost identical, regardless of the sector or province.
An investor arrives with a project: agriculture, real estate, mining, energy, technology, NGO, local SME.
Very quickly, a sentence falls, often presented as friendly advice: "Here, we must provide for the local share. ”
This "share" is generally not:
- nor legally defined,
- nor linked to a financial contribution,
- nor conditional on measurable results.
However, it is presented as essential:
- to “facilitate”,
- to "avoid blockages",
- to "secure the project",
- to “respect the realities of the field”.
Partnership or disguised predation?
In this disapproved practice, the rate requested is often based on:
- presumed access to leaders,
- the ability to "solve" situations,
- an unofficial influence,
- or simply a position of local authority.
The project is therefore considered as a source of income to be seized, rather than as a company to be developed.
A silence with heavy consequences
There are few investors who publicly criticize this practice. Why?
- fear of administrative reprisals,
- fear of an interruption of the project,
- desire to "not create waves",
- hope that the concern will end following the settlement.
This silence has a price:
- projects abandoned without announcement,
- non-recoverable funds,
- jobs that will never be created,
- an image of the country permanently weakened internationally.
The real questions that every conscious and patriotic Congolese should ask themselves are:
"Do investors have an obligation to give something?” Yes, that's what the law requires.
"Do they offer to build, or to claim the right to exist? ”
"Should the people survive thanks to the project, or should it be a source of illicit profits for the leaders? ”
As long as this confusion persists, development will remain a mirage for the Congolese population.
To be continued in the next article: What "facilitation" hides: anatomy of a shapeless system.
