CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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Central African Republic
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CORRUPTION
The Prime Minister has decided to continue the fight against corruption
Martin Ziguélé was appointed prime minister on 1 April 2001. He inherited a major problem from his predecessor, Georges Anicet Dologuélé, who is presently general manager of the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC) in Brazzaville. The «Zongo Oil Affair» took place during Dologuélé’s premiership. What happened? An illegally-established company, Zongo Oil, was marketing oil, diesel and petrol in the Central African Republic (CAR) and in Congo RDC. Customs clearance charges and taxes were evaded, and the loss of revenue to the State was estimated to be about five billion CFA francs. Other irregularities also contributed to a decrease in tax revenue.
Now, before preparing its report for the next board of directors meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government has added difficulties in refunding some 9 billion CFA francs to the African Development Bank (ADB) it has borrowed. Without forgetting that public sector workers haven’t been paid for 26 months; that retired civil servants haven’t yet received nine quarterly payments; that students still haven’t received their grants for the last two years.
On a fact-finding visit to Bangui, World Bank and IMF experts told the Press that the CAR still hasn’t done everything possible to increase its revenue, and that it could realize revenues of between fifty million to one hundred billion CFA francs each month.
To better understand this chronic decrease in public revenue, the Prime Minister set up a Bureau of Investigations commission in the north-west of the country. This Bureau has financial experts as its members, and brought to light a number of irregularities in the Berberati, Carnot, Nola, Bouar and Bocaranga Customs offices.
Faced with the government’s incapability to make ends meet, Mr Ziguélé went to France to seek help from the CAR‘s former colonial power. He needed help in paying off his country’s debt with the ADB, and also wanted to ask the Bretton Woods Institutions (World Bank and the IMF), to soften their requirements and increase their assistance to his country, which is tottering from one crisis to the next.
Fraud revealed
The investigation in the north-west and further inquiries within the Treasury made it possible for the Prime Minister to discover what the fraudsters are up to. Here’s some of their «tricks»:
- A network of dishonest civil servants and other financial authorities have been concocting false receipts and orders-to-pay; also fabricating false instructions for payments to be made to Nigeria and Cameroon;
- Inexact assessment of Customs’ duty and Valued Added Tax (VAT);
- The existence of shady business people who buy goods in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad Sudan, and in Mbaimboum’s weekly market, and then smuggle the goods into the CAR along tracks patrolled by corrupt Customs officers;
- Health and education are government priorities. But what happens? People in charge of these sectors are given large grants for buildings, supplies and equipment. Some senior personnel and officials from the Treasury, the National Office for Data Processing and the Departments of Health and Education make it their business to tender out to contractors who slip them «commissions» from anything to 20% to 40% for getting the tenders. There’s no question of looking for the best prices —it’s the «commission» that counts, so obviously government grants are «eaten up» well before the work has been completed.
Tackling the network
Having discovered the existence of a network of tax evadors who maintain and encourage corruption within the Treasury Department, and having gathered all the evidence, the Prime Minister arrested 25 senior officials within the department. These included Mr Eric Sorongopé-Zoumandji, the Prime Minister’s advisor in financial matters; Mr Albert Gofi, the former secretary-general in the Treasury; Marc Kodegué, a former director-general of the Treasury, among others. They’ve been behind bars for more than two months and still have to appear in court. They could very well be sent to Ngaragba Prison.
The Prime Minister has also weighed in with two more Bureau of Investigation teams. One to Bangui M’poko Airport and the other along the Bangui-Bocaranga main highway. In both cases, there’s been dishonest carryings-on. In the airport, a lady in charge of selling revenue stamps to travellers was arrested because she had worthless stamps in her office, and seven million CFA francs stashed away at home.
Along the Bangui-Bocaranga highway, the team surprised and stopped five twelve-ton vehicles, each one loaded with goods. The drivers had taken a route so as to avoid honest Customs officers. They met up with dishonest Customs officers and in Bocaranga they cleared Customs by paying five million CFA francs for the five vehicles. The drivers were apprehended by the Bureau of Investigations Team and taken to Bangui where they were fined twenty-million CFA francs for regularly evading Customs.
Mr Martin Ziguélé went to Great Britain from 1-7 September to explain his fight against corruption and to convince the CAR‘s donors that not everything and everyone is bad in his country. He was accompanied by the Minister for Higher Education and the Minister of Agriculture, Mines and Water Resources.
President Patassé is determined to continue his fight against corruption, no matter what it takes. But there’s a great deal of pressure on the President, so much so, that some people say the tax evadors will receive a presidential pardon.
See in ANB-BIA Number 391, an article dealing with much the same subject — «CAR: A Mafia centre». The above is an update.