Corruption is an evil that plagues the Democratic Republic of Congo. On the strength of this sad reality, the Congolese civil society coalition ‘The Congo is not for sale’ (CNPAV), organized a press conference on Friday June 2 to discuss the issue of public finance management. The discussions focused on several sectors such as the field of mines and hydrocarbons with personalities such as Sicomines, Dan Gertler, TFM, Primera, elections, the lifestyle of institutions, etc.
The speakers at the meeting all called for increased vigilance in order to eradicate corruption and embezzlement that are undermining the country’s economy. They urged all actors to increase surveillance of public finances, especially on the eve of the elections in order to avoid the embezzlement of money which already marks electoral history in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Past election cycles have shown that the election year is a boon for politicians to bail out their pockets to finance their election campaigns. The financing of the electoral process thus constitutes a budget line exceeding one billion dollars. This requires special attention to avoid the tampering and mistakes of the past.
Past cycles have also been marked by opaque financial flows, particularly in the extractive sector. This is the case with the disappearance of several hundred million dollars from Gécamines between 2016 and 2018, which the IGF and the Central Bank have not been able to trace to date.
Several ongoing strategic negotiations could generate unprecedented revenues in record time. The DRC has thus requested a total of 8 billion dollars as part of the renegotiations of the Sicomines contract. Similarly, aware of the renegotiation of the Tenke Fungurume Mining contract, the Congolese party demanded 7 billion dollars from its Chinese partner CMOC.
The members of the CNPAV have thus demanded transparency at the end of these various renegotiations, so that the benefits are used to improve the living conditions of the population, not those of politicians. Thus, the civil society platform continues to denounce all the illegal favors granted to the leaders, while more than two thirds of the population live in poverty that does not say its name.
The fight against corruption must be a daily struggle and the commitment of all to restore confidence in the institutions of the Democratic Republic of Congo