In Gabon, the “ task force » on the debt submitted its 60-day report, after this working group for the control, audit and verification of public markets was reactivated in September by the transitional authorities In this 12-page report dated 15 November, the “ task force ” recommended ” urgent and strong measures » to clean up Gabon’s finances and fight against misappropriation of public money.
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THE work group led by the Franco-Gabonese expert Pierre Duro recommends a “ radical politics “. School buildings, roads, drinking water network, the team’s mission was to verify all contracts involving public funds with a ” zero tolerance » for fraud, false declarations, overbilling and kickbacks, we can read in the report.
There ” task force » identifies several disputed case. For example, the case of a technical high school on the coast in the south of the country. Five billion francs have already been received by the company for only 15% of the work carried out in 10 years: the file has been sent to justice.
In other cases set out in the report, the “ task force » states that companies having recognized overpayments undertake to complete the work at their expense.
Regarding tax, already 20 billion CFA francs have been recovered from companies according to the taskforce, but another 46 billion would still have to be collected.
The report generally points to deficiencies in the use of public funds committed, the lack of competence of people responsible for coordinating projects, non-compliance with public procurement procedures and the absence of strategy in programming loan repayments – by the Public Treasury and by the General Directorate of Debt.
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