“Dan Gertler earns 254,000 USD per day, by exploiting the Congo’s natural resources” illegally “(CNPAV survey)
The Congo is not for sale (CNPAV) published this Wednesday, May 12 in Kinshasa its report entitled: “Lost billions: financial investigation into Dan Gertler’s transactions in the extractive sector”. The results of the CNPAV investigation report that Israeli businessman Dan Gertler earns 254,000 US dollars (two hundred and fifty-four thousand US dollars) per day through his “illegal” exploitation of natural resources. the DRC. This works out to $ 1,778,000 per week, $ 7,620,000 each month and $ 92,710,000 each year.
The CNPAV regrets in its report that the money “squandered” by Dan Gertler could have been used by the DRC to build quality schools and cover their operational costs; to buy buses for public transport and to triple its annual budget for agriculture.
“With the $ 254,000 that Dan Gertler earns per day, the Congo could build two schools up to standards. With the $ 1,778,000 that Dan Gertler per week, Congo could buy 25 buses for public transport. With the $ 7,620,000 that Dan Gertler earns each month, Congo could cover 80% of the operational costs of all its schools. With the $ 92,710,000 that Dan Gertler earns each year, the Congo could triple its annual budget for agriculture, ”indicates the CNPAV survey.
As a result, this civil society platform calls on President Félix Tshisekedi to speak out on this subject and to open an investigation into the agreements made by Gertler over the past twenty years. CNPAV refers to a former report by the Kofi Annan Foundation and Africa Progress Panel (APP), published in 2013, which refers to Gertler’s contracts for five copper and cobalt concessions that deprived the DRC of $ 1.36 billion .
“The first concerns about contracts with the businessman were raised by the United Nations Group of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources in the early 2007s. In 2013, Kofi Annan’s foundation, The Africa Progress Panel (APP), publishes a flagship report highlighting the astronomical amounts that the DRC has been deprived of by doing business with Gertler’s offshore companies. The report concludes that Gertler’s contracts for five highly prized copper and cobalt concessions deprived the DRC of $ 1.36 billion, ”CNPAV claims.
Eight years later, Le Congo is not for sale takes a look at the figures of the Africa Progress Panel, updating them with more recent data; other transactions in which Gertler plays a key role are also examined.
Based on this new information, CNPAV estimates that so far, the Congolese state has lost a minimum of $ 1,946 billion due to contracts with Dan Gertler.
Figures that have a devastating effect, according to the CNPAV, in a country ranked 175th out of 189 (DRC) on the latest statistics of the UN Human Development Index. For this platform, with this money, the government could have:
• Build 10,551 schools, the equivalent of about a third of all primary and secondary schools in the DRC in 2009, or;
• Fund access to primary health care in health centers for 21.32 million citizens14 for 10 years, or;
• Paving 8,768.85 km of roads, 15 more than double the number of roads currently paved in the country. More specifically, this sum could have financed the tarring of new roads between Kinshasa in the West and Lubumbashi in the South; between Lubumbashi in the south and Goma in the east; between Goma in the east and Kisangani in the north; between Kisangani in the North and Kinshasa in the West17.
To obtain the financial losses of the DRC, the CNPAV, said to have calculated the difference between the income derived by Gertler from these various assets (resale price of the assets, collection of royalties or other contractual payments) and the price at which he bought them.
