The Center for Research in Public Finance and Local Development (CREFDL), in collaboration with the German NGO Democracy Reporting International (DRI), carried out a comparative study on the budget and the public procurement system, within the framework of operations elections in the DRC. These two structures note management “ opaque » in the execution of funds allocated to the Electoral Commission, notably under the presidency of Denis Kadima between 2021 and 2023.
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The Center for Research in Public Finance has published two studies in quick succession which review the finances of the CENI during this electoral period: a report on the award of public contracts and another on the credibility of the operations budget. What emerges is great opacity.
“ The public expenditure and procurement circuit, a guarantee of good management of public finances in the DRC, does not work, we can read in conclusion. We are witnessing over-financing and over-invoicing of the budget for certain activities. » The center also notes numerous financial flows in commercial banks instead of the Central Bank of Congo, escaping, according to it, internal control.
Consequence: the report notes a 25% increase in electoral spending compared to the previous 2016-2019 cycle. And above all a gap between the agent disbursed by Public Treasury and that received by the Commission of 161 million dollars. For Valéry Madianga, coordinator of CREFDL, the Céni must now explain these findings; it has a duty of accountability for the Congolese people, he believes.
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