DRC: management of 0.3% of turnover, civil society protests against the obligation imposed to cover the mission expenses of agents of the Ministry of Mines

Civil society organizations members of the Coordination of Advocacy Actions for the Governance of Natural Resources are protesting against the decision imposed on mining companies to bear the mission expenses of agents of the Ministry of Mines and Social Affairs deployed in the provinces for the installation of members of organizations specializing in the management of the minimum endowment of 0.3% of turnover.

As part of the establishment of specialized bodies for the management of the minimum allocation of 0.3% of the turnover of mining companies, civil society organizations call on the Ministers of Mines and Social Affairs to entrust the authorities provincial and local authorities overseeing this
process of appointing and installing members of specialized bodies.

According to the declaration of these Congolese civil society organizations, “this will make it possible to put an end to the field missions of the services of the central administration and to the illegal financial charges on the backs of the mining companies”.

The civil society organizations members of the Coordination of Advocacy Actions for the Governance of Natural Resources have taken note of the installation of certain specialized bodies responsible for managing the minimum allocation of 0.3% of the turnover of the mining companies in the provinces of Lualaba, Haut-Katanga, Haut-Uélé and Kasaï Oriental.

“The fact of charging mining companies the mission expenses of State agents does not honor the Congolese Government and shows the limits and the lack of realism of these two ministries in the process of appointment and installation of specialized bodies responsible for managing this allocation at the local level. “, can we read in this public declaration.

Thus, the signatory organizations of the said declaration disapprove of the procedure established by the two ministries which would like the teams in charge of the process of designating and installing these specialized bodies to come from Kinshasa, the capital, whereas there are decentralized services and decentralized in the provinces and within the ETDs (decentralized territorial entities) concerned which could carry out this work quickly and free of charge and then report to the two Ministers.

As a reminder, between February and March 2022, a large delegation of services from the central administration of Mines and Social Affairs traveled to the provinces of Haut-Katanga, Lualaba, Nord-Kivu, Haut- Uélé and Kasaï Oriental for the designation of the members of the specialized organizations of a dozen mining companies.

This mission ended without certain components designating their representatives within the specialized organizations in a transparent and inclusive manner.

“The decrees appointing the members of certain specialized organizations signed following this mission were not the result of consensus between certain components. This situation has created frustrations and conflicts within certain communities”, denounces this civil society consortium.

In addition, the members of this delegation demanded from the companies concerned the payment of sums of money which would be deducted from the operating costs of the Committee for Supervision, orientation, monitoring and control of the management of the allocation.

Faced with the ineffectiveness of the missions of the agents of the central administration and the illegal financial charges placed on the backs of the mining companies, which charges are to be abolished immediately, the member Organizations of the Coordination invite the Ministers of Mines and Business to entrust to the Governors of the Provinces, to the Provincial Ministers of Mines and Social Affairs, to the Heads of the Provincial Divisions of Mines and Social Affairs, to the managers of the ETDs the missions of supervision of the process of appointment and installation of the members of the specialized organizations responsible for management of the minimum endowment of 0.3% of turnover.These provincial and local authorities will be responsible for reporting to the Ministers of Mines and Business for the signing of decrees designating and installing these specialized bodies.