NGOs call on the government to publish MOUs signed with new Grand Inga 3 developers
Civil Society Organizations specialized in monitoring the electricity sector, had on Monday, September 28, 2020 in Kinshasa, assessed and analyzed the evolution of the context of the implementation of the Project.
After several discussion these organizations deplore a total opacity around the information on the major stages of the Inga 3 project, and the conditions of involvement of new developer candidates for its implementation.
In a joint press release, read by these civil society organizations, they deplore an institutional vagueness around the legal authority in charge of coordinating the Inga 3 Project and an unclear fate of the Exclusive Development Agreement signed on October 16, 2018 by ADPI-RDC.
“We noted the following: -An institutional vagueness around the legal authority in charge of coordinating the Inga 3 Project, while ordinances N ° 15/079 of October 13, 2015 on the creation, organization and operation of
the Agency for the Development and Promotion of the Inga 3 project, ADPI-RDC and that N ° 18/004 of January 09, 2018, laying down additional provisions relating to the status, organization and functioning of this same agency are not yet repealed. This visibly creates a disorder in the actions that are taken within the framework of this project; – A vagueness of the fate of the Exclusive Development Agreement signed on October 16, 2018 by ADPI-DRC, under the supervision of the government, with the Chinese and Spanish consortia with regard to the memoranda of understanding newly signed between the Government Congolese via the Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity with German and Australian investors “, informs their joint press release.
These civil society organizations also deplore the opacity in the memoranda of understanding signed with investors, through the groups EVAGOR (Germans) and FORTESCUE METAL GROUP (Australians), without there having been a call for tenders. formal as part of the reopening of the long developer selection process, previously closed with the selection of Pro Inga and China Inga 3. As well as the name involvement of Civil Society Organizations and Local Communities in the negotiation and development of the Inga 3 Project.
In the same vein, they deplore the absence of a satisfactory response to the numerous correspondence, messages and press releases from
Civil Society Organizations requesting their participation in the preparatory work for the Pan-African Conference on the Inga 3 Project organized by the government of the DRC in collaboration with AUDA-NEPAD and the African Union, despite all the steps taken to do so.
In view of the above, civil society organizations
recommend that the Government:
1. Specify for the attention of both national and international opinion
the institution which initiates the Inga 3 Project;
2. Clarify the role of ADPI-RDC in the current configuration of the Inga 3 Project;
3. Make public the Government’s policy document for the implementation of the Inga 3 Project which will allow the Congolese population to better understand the points on: The governance of the project; The rules that govern the selection process for candidate developers; The distribution of the energy that will be produced …
4. Make public for the sake of transparency, all the memoranda
of understanding signed with the new identified developer candidates of the Inga 3 Project, namely: EVAGOR and FORTESCUE METAL GROUP, including the Exclusive Development Agreement signed on October 16, 2018, between the government and the Chinese and Spanish consortia, and communicate clearly on the future of this agreement with regard to the recently signed memoranda of understanding;
5. Ensure the participation of Civil Society Organizations and local communities in the process of implementing the
Inga 3 Project, by setting up a formal framework for exchange
between Project stakeholders;
6. Guarantee the participation of civil society organizations, both national and international, in the Pan-African Conference in gestation because of the importance of this project and the influence it
exerts on many countries of the continent.
Eleven organizations of the company are signatories of the said press release, they are: ASADHO, CENADEP, CODED, CODICLI, CORAP, D5, FESO, Forum Citoyen, IDEL, OEARSE, and SOFFLEC0.
