After three audits that remained a dead letter, the president of this body of the Supreme Court is planning arrests and legal proceedings as part of the management of the 180 billion released for the response against coronavirus.
Published Thursday December 5, 2024 at 9:35:51 p.m. Modified Thursday December 5, 2024 at 9:35:54 p.m. Reading time 9 minBy Jean Omer Eyango
Yap Abdou, president of the Audit Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cameroon
No official from the Audit Chamber of the Supreme Court of Cameroon had until then spoken publicly on the scandal of massive misappropriation of public funds as part of the response against COVID-19, revealed in 2021 and 2022 by this instance. Three years after the first report on management, it was its president who spoke on December 1 on national television and in a prime time program (โActualitรฉs Hebdosโ) on the audit of the โSpecial Fund for national solidarity for the fight against the coronavirus and its economic and social repercussions”, created by order of the President of the Republic on June 3, 2020, with a budget of 180 billion CFA francs, divided into 4 programs piloted by 24 ministerial departments. The timing of this outing for a senior official of the accounts jurisdiction who had never spoken before in such a solemn posture in a media, but there is no doubt that Yap Abdou was in a communication action, with a clear message to convey.
So any hope that this file would one day be sent to justice seemed to have vanished, the former president of the Special Criminal Court (TCS) in fact made statements that were, to say the least, unexpected, ensuring that the case was being followed with close attention. particular at the level of the Chamber of Accounts. โWe are currently drawing conclusions from the recommendations that we have made and in the days to come, you will be able to see people being prosecuted for management errors. Justice moves slowly, but surely,โ he advises.
Recalling that the time of justice is not the time of men, he continued by explaining that โit is not in five years that we are going to initiate legal actions.โ In a firm tone, he swears: โmay those who have made blunders, management errors, management irregularities continue to behave.โ The audit chamber had in fact announced the production, in 2023, of a special report on the follow-up given by the executive to all of the 48 recommendations that it made following the three audits carried out since 2020 on the use of resources allocated to the fight against the coronavirus. This was never published. Is it possible that this is the report that senior magistrate Yap Abdou mentions?
To understand, in 20230, the State of Cameroon closed the Special National Solidarity Fund for the fight against the coronavirus and its economic and social repercussions, not only because of the irregularities which had marred its management since 2020, but also and above all because there was no longer a health emergency which justified its maintenance. This decision came following the third audit report of this special allocation account (C.A.S) published by the Chamber of Auditors, which covered the 2021 financial year. This audit which revealed that at the end of February 2023, the payer specialist of this C.A.S had not produced a management account for the financial year concerned, although he should have sent it tojurisdiction by May 31, 2022 at the latest. For the chamber, one of the reasons for this delay was linked to the lack of understanding by the Ministry of Finance (Minfi) of the principle of budgetary annuality โwhich led the administration to close the 2021 financial year well beyond the December 31, 2021โ (June 30, 2022, to be precise).
Excess balance
Moreover, for the 2021 financial year, an amount of 150 billion FCFA was allocated to this Special Fund. This allocation was increased to 200 billion FCFA by Order No. 2021/003 of June 7, 2021 modifying and supplementing certain provisions of the initial finance law. The Chamber of Accounts noted that no decree to distribute this resource between the beneficiary administrations had been taken, “which made the management of the Special Fund hazardous, and gave a bonus to the most spending administrations in the absence of budget ceilingโ.
As a result, the balance of the C.A.S for this 2021 financial year was in surplus to the tune of 9.567 billion FCFA which, added to the surplus balance for the 2020 financial year which amounted to a little more than 20.4 billion FCFA, made a total of 30 billion FCFA as of December 31, 2021. โThis situation has two consequences: firstly, the Special Fund can no longer be considered as a real special allocation account since it operates largely outside the earmarked resources rule. In a regular earmarked account, a surplus balance means that the earmarked resources have kept the account in balance. This is no longer the case here, due to the importance of payments from the general budget, which represented 83.4% in 2020 and 46.1% of resources in 2021. A surplus balance at the end of the financial year only reflects the fact that payments from the general budget constitute an accounting adjustment calculated beyond what is necessary, but they do not provide any information on the quality of management: in particular, this does not mean that management has been optimal. Secondly, this exceptional rule poses in practice a difficulty in monitoring the revenue of the Special Fund coming from the general budget, and therefore the transparency of budgetary and accounting operations,โ commented the authors of the report.
Task force
They also pointed out that most of the revenue constituted by payments from the general budget was not recorded by the specialized payer of the C.A.S Covid-19; nor did they pass through the Public Treasury account no. 470552, opened on April 15, 2020. In this third report, the Chamber of Accounts reveals irregularities aplenty, notably in the procedures for purchasing RDT tests from unapproved prices, for an amount of 20 billion FCFA. By way of justification, the Minister of Commerce, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana, in his capacity as president of the price validation commission, wrote on September 22, 2021: โfollowing validation by the President of the Republic (โฆ) of the emergency budget relating to the supply of 500,000 AG Covid-19 tests by AEHAN GLOBAL establishments, for an amount including tax of 3,036,250,000 FCFA and 250,000 BIOSYNEX rapid tests by the company NYL COMPANY SARL, for an amount including tax of 1,300,406,250 FCFA, notified by letter A263/SG/PR of August 30, 2021, the examination by me of the said prices does not seem to me more timely. ยป
For the Chamber, โthis curious position of the special commission for the validation of prices and tariffs, which is not based on any text, has led the latter to free itself from its responsibilityโ. The investigators were interested in the particular case of a market for the purchase of 500,000 RDT antigen tests, signed on February 5, 2021 by the Minister of Public Health, Manaouda Malachie, with the company Mediline Medical Cameroon S.A for an amount of 8 .75 billion FCFA,with a unit price of 17,500 FCFA. It then noted that this unit price of 17,500 FCFA had already been charged by this company in four (04) previous contracts awarded in 2020. It appeared, however, that this price was well beyond the reference price that the Task Force practiced. in 2021 for the same RDT tests, i.e. 4,290 FCFA for certain markets and 5,000 FCFA for others. Considering a reference price of 5,000 FCFA, the audit concluded, the additional cost borne by the State amounted to 6.25 billion FCFA in 2021, which is added to the additional cost of 15.374 billion FCFA that the Chamber had identified in its first report covering the 2020 financial year for this same company. It is therefore a total of 21.624 billion FCFA over the two financial years which were overcharged by this company.
The Audit Chamber concluded that with regard to the verifications on the regularity and conformity of the operations to implement activities to combat COVID-19 in 2021, there were fewer irregularities during this financial year than in 2020. When it comes to performance, it has not always been sought after. The Special National Solidarity Fund for the fight against the coronavirus and its economic and social repercussions, for its part, operated in very difficult conditions and, as in 2020, did not achieve the expected results in 2021. While the political opposition and civil society have increased criticism of the executive and the judiciary for not having until now initiated any judicial investigation into serious suspicions of financial embezzlement in the management of funds Covid-19, the Chamber of Auditors announced in 2022 the opening of a procedure in matters of budgetary and financial discipline, without specifying the administration concerned.
Read also: Cameroon: the Chamber of Auditors certifies that the Stateโs financial statements โare neither sincere nor regularโ
In September of the same year 2022, a second report focused on the expenditure of 20 ministerial departments during the 2020 financial year. It noted, with regard to stock accounting, that โit is likely to have favored distractions of goods. Taking the example of a concerned administration, the Chamber underlines that aid from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, for the reduction of food dependence, was allocated to 64 individuals, for an amount of 424.5 million CFA francs. , among whom we find a minister, two deputies, a colonel, and a financial controller, โWhile these people were without direct link to agricultural activities, nor proven competence in the field of reducing food dependence, we could by therefore doubt that they were best placed to carry out actions aimed at this objectiveโ.
Despite this second report, in which the Chamber made 12 recommendations and decided to initiate a procedure for management errors, no sanctions were ever applied. This body openly condemned the Minister of Public Health and the company Mediline Medical Cameroon S.A of businessman Mohamadou Dabo, who died in December 2022. In its third audit report, it had estimated at 21.6 billion Fcfa the total overbillings carried out within the framework of the contracts granted by Manaouda Malachie to this company.
On December 31, 2023, in his traditional message to the nation, the Head of State announced the relaunch of the anti-corruption operation, raising the specter of legal proceedings in the context of Covidgate. Perhaps the time for justice has finally arrived.
Source: Ecomatin
