Congolese subcontracting still has some way to go. Major challenges are to be met. If the State, in its branches, has the obligation to ensure the rigorous implementation of the law in force; Congolese companies benefiting from this exclusivity will have to improve the quality of their services, pool their efforts and acquire the technical and financial skills required to merit the markets in the face of foreign competition.
This is the conclusion reached by the panelists of the session focused on the impact of the Mining Code on Congolese companies, as part of DRC Mining Week activities, this Thursday, June 20, 2019 at the Karavia Hotel in Lubumbashi.
Indeed, the director general of the Subcontracting Regulatory Authority, Ahmed Kalej Nkand, has circumscribed the origin of the law on subcontracting which is one of the innovations of the new Mining Code. Because, the legislator’s concern, by establishing this Law, was based on a bitter observation.
« There has been a positive evolution of mining companies and others. Unfortunately, it did not have an impact on the social. The unemployment rate is still high, foreign companies, settling, take their foreign labor to the detriment of nationals who languish in misery. Hence, the adoption of this law which is forced any foreign company to resort to Congolese subcontracting », he said.
Outline of this law
The Law on Subcontracting is intended to make the subcontracting of ancillary and related activities of the main activity mandatory and to reserve, whatever its nature, Congolese companies with Congolese capital in order to promote them. and thus promote the emergence of a Congolese middle class.
It pursues the protection of the labor force working in subcontracting companies, the creation of employment for nationals and the broadening of the tax base for the benefit of the public treasury.
This law also sets the conditions for contracting out. In particular, you must have a Trade and Furniture Credit Register, a national identification and a tax number; produce a document stating that he is in good standing with the tax authorities; present affiliation to a social security organization. It sets out rights and obligations of two parties. It also determines the social, fiscal, customs, commercial and financial system.
Responsibilities of the parties
On the one hand, the Congolese state in its various branches, including the Subcontracting Regulatory Authority, has the obligation to ensure scrupulous compliance with the law in all sectors of national life, including the mining sector. . It should be able to sanction companies that fail and / or violate legal and regulatory texts.
On the other hand, Congolese outsourcing companies also have the responsibility and the obligation to improve the quality of the services offered to large companies to fill the deficit they face in the face of foreign competition.
In this regard, Louis Watum of Ivanhoe Mines lamented the lack of research in the head of Congolese entrepreneurs to improve the quality of their offers. Also, he insisted, those concerned should have a vision to anticipate the needs of the prime contractor and meet the challenge of raising capital.
https://twitter.com/JacquesKyabula/status/1141419064423849986
Participants and panelists converged for the federation of efforts of outsourcing companies in lieu of unsuccessful bidding. The pooling of skills, services, expertise and financial means would allow Congolese subcontractors to win big markets together rather than lose them massively each at its level. will continue to lose big markets.
One of the panelists recommended Congolese subcontractors to take inspiration from the example of the Kibali Mines subcontractors, successful model of the recourse of the local content, who built their last hydroelectric plant.
As a reminder, at the opening ceremony of the 2019 edition of DRC Mining Week, the governor of the province of Upper Katanga, Jacques Kyabula Katwe also insisted on the need to ensure strict compliance with the Law on the sub -traitance.
« The theme announced for the beginning of the work of this 15th edition (Rethinking the traditional mining model in the new era of metals) seems very important to me. Let’s not forget that we have to support the nationals through the law of subcontracting. Our young people must benefit from their basement », he said.
Nadine FULA