Cameroon’s long-standing president, Paul Biya recently gave orders for an investigation on the misappropriation of Covid-19 funds
The trigger for the investigation, reports say, was caused by the government’s ongoing approach to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) for a next loan
IMF demanded an account on the previous loan the country had taken before any next disbursements could be made
The current loan negotiation will be the third loan the Cameroon government is taking since the start of the coronavirus pandemic
Writing on behalf of the President, the Secretary general at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, sent a line of letters on the covid funds – one to the Ministry of Justice and another to Contrôle supérieur de l’État du Cameroun (CONSUPE)
CONSUPE is Cameroon’s state auditing body.
Ferdinand Ngo’s March 29 letter to CONSUPE instructed the auditing body to track an audit of all Covid-19 spending, which would facilitate the conclusion of “a new economic and financial program with the IMF”.
On April 6, Ngoh Ngoh again forwarded a letter to the Ministry of Justice – a copy of a report on Covid-19 spending prepared by an investigative body from the Supreme Court which directed the Ministry to open a “judicial inquiry” into those responsible for misappropriating Covid-19 funds in Cameroon.
Paul Biya through Ngoh Ngoh, is requesting a detailed account of funds spent which amounts to 180 billion CFA (around US$330 million)
A total of 24 ministries will have to proof how they managed their various funds
While Cameroonians are anxiously looking forward to this report, it appears that all concerns about the misappropriation of funds could only arise because IMF demanded an account on previous loans before issuing a next.
Since March 2020, the IMF has approved two emergency loans to Cameroon totaling $382 million (around 208 billion CFA)
The plan is that the new Covid-19 management team will be headed by a task force directly supervised by the Presidency.
The new team will report to Secretary general Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. A new order, said the team, will have a representative from the Prime Ministerial office, two envoys from the Ministry of Health and representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Defense and a high security member
Since 2017, we have staked our lives to provide tailor-made news reports to our readers from war zones and hot political rivalries in Cameroon - And we do so for FREE.
As a small online media now reaching over 100,000 monthly readers on all our platforms, we have to rely on hiring a small team to help keep you informed
The best way to support our online reporting is by considering a measly sum for our team on the ground as little as $1. Now you can make a donation to us below, it only takes one click...
[sdonations]1[/sdonations]
