CNPAV welcomes govt’s initiative and demands publication of elements contained in Dan Gertler agreement for more transparency

Civil society, through the Congo is not for sale (CNPAV) campaign, welcomes the start of the process of recovering the assets held “illegally and irregularly” by Dan Gertler, through a memorandum of understanding signed between the Congolese State and the Israeli businessman. On this, the CNPAV requires the publication of the elements contained in this agreement for more transparency. 

During a press briefing held this Tuesday, March 1 in Kinshasa, the CNPAV provided an update on the memorandum of understanding signed between the DRC and the Israeli businessman, Dan Gertler.

“We are announcing that we are satisfied that the process for the recovery of the assets illegally and irregularly held by Dan Gertler has been initiated. Nevertheless, we warn of elements which would suggest that the process initiated would not be very transparent. the negotiation process. We have seen the presidency and some members of the government involved in this file. Secondly, in terms of transparency, it is important that we have the elements contained in this agreement. Until today, the agreement has not is not yet published several after its announcement. This poses a problem because we remind that what brings us to this situation is the lack of transparency. It is important that the process is transparent from the start”, explains Floribert Anzuluni,coordinator of the Filimbi citizen movement and member of the CNPAV.

He insists that it is important that the people be assured that all assets illegally and improperly held by Gertler are recovered transparently.

“We need to make sure that all the mining and oil assets held by Gertler are recovered but also know on what basis the calculation of the recovered assets was made. Because we have, in several published reports, identified hundreds of millions of dollars that have escaped the Congolese state,” he adds. 

Moreover, for the UNIS coordinator, Jimmy Kande, the process of recovering mining and oil assets from Dan Gertler shows the common sense of the fight led for years by the platform “Congo is not for sale” ( CNPAV). He believes that before celebrating, it is important to read the content of this agreement. 

“We are experiencing the fulfillment of all the mobilizations made for several years. Sometimes we have been criticized when we denounced Dan Gertler’s contract, but today the fact that the government has declared that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with him , shows to the face of the world that our claims were founded. Although we welcome this agreement but we want to see its contents before being able to jubilate because we know that Mr. Dan Gertler was implicated in several facts of corruption. What prevents us to gloat until we see that deal yet,” he said.

And to add:

“We want to know which assets are concerned in this memorandum of understanding because in the communication from the government we alluded to a substantial part, for example, royalties from KCC. While we know that there are royalties from Mutanda, Metakol who have not been cited. So there are still many gray areas. This is why we demand the immediate publication of this contract to allow the population to believe in the government’s good faith.” . 

For his part, Jean-Pierre Okenda, expert from the NGO resource matters also mentioned the need for the publication of this agreement in order to allow the population to know the management of its minerals.

The CNPAV makes 3 recommendations to the government, namely: the publication of this agreement including the annexes; Details of Dan Gertler’s assets; As well as the assurance of compliance with the procedure of the law and the rules of transparency in this agreement. 

Recall that the government signed, Thursday, February 24, an amicable memorandum of understanding with the Ventura group of the Israeli businessman Dan Gertler. According to the Presidency of the Republic, this expectation puts an end to the legal dispute between the two parties and allows the Congolese State to recover disputed mining and oil assets linked to Dan Gertler.