“Congo is not for sale” NGO applauds Gécamines for resuming publication of contracts signed with private companies | DRC
Seven (7) civil society organizations, members of the “Congo is not for sale” campaign welcomed the efforts of the current management of Gecamines for the resumption of the process of publication of mining contracts signed with investors private. They also support the commitment of the EITI Technical Secretariat for its role in the extractive sector transparency process.
“After numerous calls from civil society and the Technical and Financial Partners of the DRC, a series of mining contracts essentially signed between Gécamines and its private partners have just been published on the EITI website. The CNPAV encourages Gécamines to continue this momentum as a sign of breaking with the opacity that surrounded the signing of several mining contracts in recent years. The CNPAV considers that the relaunch of the publication will induce public debate on transparency as well as accountability in the governance of the extractive sector of the Democratic Republic of Congo “, specified the seven organizations signatories of this document and members of the campaign” The Congo is not for sale “, in a press briefing held this Tuesday, October 04 in Lubumbashi.
The Congo is not for sale campaign has also called on the Congolese government to exhaustively publish mining contracts with investors.
“While welcoming the progress, the ‘Congo is not for sale’ campaign calls on the government to exhaustively publish the remaining contracts in order to allow Congolese citizens and civil society organizations to exercise their right of scrutiny on these transactions, but also to confirm its commitment to transparency and the fight against corruption, especially since the next validation review of the DRC EITI will have to take this into account “, they specified during this press briefing. .
The campaign “The Congo is not for sale” also explained, in a specific way, the relevance of seeing the disclosure of the annexes of the recently published mining contracts for a better understanding of the contractual terms and to publish the contract of May 08, 2013 on the transfer of all rights and interests relating to Gécamines’ royalties in KCC to AHIL, which according to the “Congo is not for sale” campaign, is part of nine mining contracts deemed a priority by civil society.
The Gécamines Management Committee is headed by the Managing Director Sama Lukonde (photo) who took over the management of this mining company in June 2020.
