Reuters - Belgium's
foreign minister and democracy activists in Democratic Republic of Congo called
on Congolese authorities to investigate allegations that high-ranking
officials
stole millions of dollars in public funds.
The
accusations surfaced shortly after the postponement of an election for a
successor to President Joseph Kabila, originally scheduled for next month,
until at least April 2018. The delay triggered violent unrest in the capital
Kinshasa last month in which at least 50 people died.
In an article
last week, the Belgian newspaper Le Soir cited documents provided by
Jean-Jacques Lumumba, a former employee at the Congo branch of BGFI Bank,
central Africa's biggest bank, as indicating a series of transactions that
resulted in large and unexplained losses of state money.
Congo's
government spokesman did not respond to a phone call or text message requesting
comment and BGFI did not respond to an email. Lumumba referred questions to Le
Soir. Reuters was not able to independently confirm any instances of
wrongdoing.
"The revelations
are so serious ... that the attorney general of the republic should investigate
this affair," Jean-Claude Katende, president of the African Association
for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADHO), told Reuters on Monday.
Belgian
Foreign Minister Didier Reynders also called for an investigation during an
interview with RTL-TVI on Sunday.
"I hope
that, with all the documents that have been provided, there can be not only
investigations in Congo but also international investigations," he said.
Belgium was
the colonial power in Congo until its independence in 1960.
Le Soir cited
several alleged misuses of public funds. In one case, it said, the national
electoral commission allegedly made millions of dollars in unexplained
withdrawals from a $25 million credit line it opened this year even as $54
million in funds allocated to it by the treasury for electoral operations
remained untouched.
A spokesman
for the electoral commission referred Reuters to the commission's president,
who did not respond to a phone call or a text message requesting comment.
In another
case described by Le Soir, the Central Bank allegedly made $43 million worth of
unexplained transfers to the account of a company chaired by Albert Yuma, who
is also chairman of the state mining firm Gecamines and a Kabila ally.
The Central
Bank denied that it had ever transferred money to the company. Yuma told
Reuters the accusation against him was "baseless" and that he was
preparing a formal response that would be published in Le Soir.
Corruption is
endemic in the vast central African state. Kabila's counselor on graft and
money laundering, Luzolo Bambi, said last year that the country loses up to $15
billion a year to fraud, roughly three times the annual bud.
Reuters.
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