IGF Orders Sicomines’ Chinese Firms to Pay $20B to DR Congo.
In the final conclusions of the audit report commissioned by President Felix Tshisekedi on the 2008 agreement between Gécamines and the Chinese business group (GEC), which led to the Congolese-Chinese joint venture Sicomines, the Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) increases the financial demands in favor of the DRC.
In the final conclusions of the audit report commissioned by President Félix Tshisekedi on the 2008 agreement between Gécamines and the Groupement d’entreprises chinoises (GEC), which gave rise to the Congolese-Chinese joint venture Sicomines, the Inspectorate General of Finance (IGF) has increased the financial demands in favor of the DRC.
The GEC companies are now being asked to pay $20 billion, up from the initial $3 billion. Starting this year, Sicomines must release $1 billion to finance infrastructure projects, of which half will go to Congolese companies.
According to the IGF report, the GEC’s gain reached $76 billion, while the DRC only gained $3 billion.
In its agreements with the DRC, Sicomines has mobilized $4.47 billion over fourteen years, of which only $822 million has been used to finance the construction of infrastructure on the 3,500 km of roads, as well as kilometers of railways, 31 hospitals, and 145 health centers to be built, valued at $6.5 billion.
The IGF also denounces Sicomines’ sale of its own production to GEC companies at prices below market value, resulting in a loss of $7.37 billion. For Jules Alingete Key, head of the IGF, this is “an unacceptable economic colonization.”
The Chinese Embassy in the DRC, on the other hand, did not wait long to react, releasing a statement on social media on February 17th, expressing regret for the IGF report “whose content is full of prejudices” and “does not correspond to reality.”
