The IMF’s Article IV consultation mission with the Congolese government is invited by civil society to address issues related to natural resources. Objective: to urge the national executive to conduct an independent audit on the management of certain parastatal enterprises and to publish certain contracts for natural resources.
According to a joint correspondence of 34 civil society organizations addressed to Christine Lagarde, Executive Director of the IMF, these are four files:
1. The « opaque » transactions of parastatals including Gécamines;
2. The collection of CMM royalties by Dan Gertler’s companies as well as the non-publication of the contracts surrounding these transactions;
3. Non-transparent negotiation, management and development of contracts for the Inga 3 hydropower site;
4. And finally, the sale of the shares of the State to a private entity in the framework of the project of construction of the hydroelectric dam of Busanga by SICOHYDRO in the province of Lualaba to supply the SICOMINES.
If he seizes this opportunity offered by the current political environment to make major changes in the way of managing public affairs in order to allow the DRC to make a fresh start, it is out of the question for these actors of the civil society to tolerate the bad practices that have held back the momentum of development, which the IMF opposed before it was withdrawn.
« Civil society actors and some media have expressed concern about Gécamines’ various contradictory statements about its payments to the State and the phenomenon of its tax advances to the Central Bank, whose traceability raises many doubts about their actual destination. They lamented.
Moreover, they discussed the perception of Gécamines’ royalties by Dan Gertler’s companies as well as the non-publication of the contracts surrounding these transactions.
As for SICOHYDRO’s construction project for the hydroelectric dam in Busanga, this file raises further concerns about the amount of infrastructure loans under the Sino-Congolese Mining Project and its difficult to trace destination.
All in all, the 34 civil society organizations urge the IMF to recommend to the government the audit for greater transparency and accountability on these issues. And as a means of pressure, to make it « one of the conditions sine-qua-non for any possible support to the state budget. »
Agnès KAYEMBE