In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ministers of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, of Rural Development François Rubota, and his predecessor Guy Mikulu, were prohibited from leaving Congolese territory this weekend. A decision by the prosecutor at the Court of Cassation who is investigating the misappropriation of public funds and corruption in the award and execution of a lucrative contract for the construction of water boreholes in the country.
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With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
The Attorney General fears that these two current ministers and the former minister will avoid legal proceedings. He claims that they are accused of having embezzled public funds and will have to answer in court.
One of them, Nicolas Kazadi, current Minister of Finance, was taken off a flight on Saturday evening while he was expected by the president’s delegation Felix Tshisekedi in Berlin, and in Paris, according to several airport sources. His diplomatic passport was even confiscated.
The three personalities are at the heart of an alleged corruption scandal which has been making headlines for several weeks, concerning allegations of overbilling in a drilling and water treatment plant contract in DRC.
Read alsoDRC: scandal surrounding the cost of building a thousand water treatment plants
If the contract dates from 2021 when Guy Mikulu was Minister of Rural Development, the payment, or a quarter of the sum, was made two years later, when Nicolas Kazadi and François Rubota were respectively Ministers of Finance and Rural Development.
The state is expected to have more than 1,300 water drilling stations delivered at nearly $300,000 per piece. It is much more expensive than the 20 to 30,000 dollars mentioned by civil society organizations which point to overbilling.
One of them, the Congolese Association for Access to Justice (ACAJ), is even demanding the seizure of the property and bank accounts of people who were involved in the signing of the contract and the payment.