Matadi – Democratic Republic of Congo’s auditors have accused a provincial governor of siphoning off $8.7 million, attacking a budgetary practice that his spokesperson says is a time-honoured “benefit”.
In a report, Jules Alingete, head of the General Inspection of Finances (IGF) accused Governor Atou Matubuana of Kongo Central province of “diverting” 17.4 billion Congolese francs ($8.7 million) in government expenditure last year.
It drew the conclusion after failing to see receipts to justify payments for “civilian and military security and justice services,” “economic, social, scientific and cultural interventions,” a “special intervention fund” and other expenditures.
The report is the latest in a string of headline-making allegations about financial irregularities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where corruption is entrenched.
Matubuana’s spokesperson Jules Nsumbu denied that any illegality was involved.
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“How can one divert a benefit which is legal and therefore one’s own benefit?” he said to AFP.
“Since the dawn of time, it has been acknowledged that governors have certain benefits, like those for which Governor Atou Matubuana is being accused.”
The IGF’s report has been handed to the prosecutor’s office at the Court of Cassation, the judicial body empowered to try governors.
Anti-corruption campaigners have urged prosecutors to launch a formal investigation.
“We are afraid that these revelations will suffer the same fate as the conclusions of the probe into embezzled anti-coronavirus funds, for which there has been no followup,” said Georges Kapiamba of the Congolese Association for Access to Justice.
President Felix Tshisekedi, who took office in January 2019, has vowed to make the fight against corruption a hallmark of his tenure.
The DRC ranks 170th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index by the anti-graft NGO Transparency International.
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Source: AFP
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