From above, Jules Alingete, inspector general of finances and head of department at the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), seems to fall, implicated by the attorney general at the Court of Auditors.
According to an official press release from this jurisdiction, dated July 11 and widely relayed in the media since Monday, invitations have already been sent to Alingete and five other personalities, including financial inspectors, involved in the “file relating to the consultancy contract established” on the basis of a “mission order” signed by the head of the IGF department, at the “request” of Placide Nkala, Director General of Gécamines.
However, Jules Alingete is refusing to respond to this invitation from the prosecutor at the Court of Auditors, arguing, through intermediaries, that “financial inspectors cannot be heard on facts arising from their work except with the express authorization of the Head of State, according to the law on the judicial status of financial inspectors.”
This line of defense, supported by a pro-Alingete, who spoke to the Congolese Press Agency (ACP), is undermined by legal arguments, which put the number 1 of the IGF and his acolytes once morest the wall, not without placing other offenses on their shoulders. In particular, that of obstructing the action of the Court of Auditors.
Indeed, according to a correspondence from the Court of Auditors, consulted exclusively by Opinion-info.cd, Jules Alingete, by virtue of his capacity as head of department at the IGF, a public service which falls under the central government, is “subject to the jurisdiction” of the Court of Auditors, in accordance with article 32, paragraph 1, point 4 of the organic law of 13 November 2018 relating to this jurisdiction.
This article states: “Any manager or agent of public companies, public establishments or bodies may be prosecuted before the Court of Auditors for mismanagement in matters of budgetary and financial discipline.”
Another legal argument that definitively nails Alingete was taken from Ordinance No. 87-323 of September 15, 1987, establishing the General Inspectorate of Finance, as amended and supplemented to date. According to Article 6 bis, paragraph 2, of this Ordinance, the General Inspector of Finance-Head of Department is a “judicial police officer.”
“It follows that he is legally subordinate to the Attorney General at the Court of Auditors, who exercises the functions of the public prosecutor’s office,” maintains this correspondence, relying on article 17, paragraph 2 of the organic law on the Court of Auditors.
And to continue:
“Article 294 of the aforementioned Organic Law refers to the application by the Court of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Code of Civil Procedure and those of Organic Law No. 13/011-B of 11 April 2013 on the organisation, operation and powers of the courts of the judicial system, Article 67 of which provides as follows: ”In criminal matters, the public prosecutor’s office investigates offences once morest legislative and regulatory acts that are committed on the territory of the Republic. It receives complaints and denunciations, carries out all investigative acts and refers cases to the Courts and Tribunals”.
Regarding the IGF, Opinion-info.cd has learned that no fewer than three complaints have been made to the Attorney General at the Court of Auditors. Added to these complaints is Jules Alingete’s “refusal” to “communicate the file relating to the emoluments of public officials”. “This fact constitutes an obstruction of the action of the Court of Auditors (article 98 in fine of the organic law relating to the Court of Auditors)”, warns this correspondence consulted exclusively by acturdc.com.
The sky, many observers believe, is covered with clouds for Alingete, whose true nature, long hidden in the communication campaign he is paying for with the force of greenbacks, moreover acquired in unfortunate circumstances, is regarding to be revealed to public opinion. Which would explain, according to the same observers, his gesticulations and his stratagem of trying to block the action of the Court of Auditors at the level of form, as much as for the substance, everything suggests that he will be cooked.
Thus, by ignoring the summons of the Court of Auditors, Jules Alingete is obstructing the action of the prosecutor and making his case worse, according to this jurisdiction.
Cacophony at the IGF – General Inspectorate of Finances -. The head of this public service, attached to the presidency of the Republic, Jules Alingete, ready to break his piggy bank to buy himself the image of a fierce opponent of embezzlement and corruption, is however far from embodying this image.
His experience with Gécamines (one example among many others) reveals how Alingete, anxious to fill his pockets, diverted the IGF and its resources (notably the financial inspectors) from their legally established missions.
At the end of last October, the hierarchy of this public company requested, following approximately three years of a management mission led by Alingete’s men, to transform said management mission into a “team of consultants” to “work with the services” of Gécamines.
The concern of the DG of Gécamines, Placide Nkala Basuadila, is to “reactivate existing procedures in the financial, budgetary and internal control areas”, and to benefit from “the expertise (of the IGF inspectors), for the effective functioning of the Internal Public Procurement Unit and the strengthening of internal auditing”.
Placide Nkala Basuadila made this request in his correspondence of October 31, demonstrating such a degree of ignorance on the strict observance of the legal provisions relating to the missions assigned to the IGF and its inspectors.
Nkala was unfortunately accompanied in his ignorance by Alingete, who was supposed to know the prerogatives of the IGF by heart, but who was visibly unable to resist the opportunity to replenish his bag of hard cash.
The head of department at the IGF promptly responded favorably to Gécamines’ request by signing a mission order on November 7, 2023 (i.e. within the space of a week) for “consultancy work with Gécamines” for 90 days.
Following this mission order, Alingete sent a “note of costs and fees for the services of the IGF consultancy mission”. The bill, for the month of November alone, is steep. It came to $150,000 excluding tax and payable into a bank account held at Equity-BCDC, according to this note of costs.
Except that the IGF, which is a control service, can never transform itself into a consultancy firm.
“The General Inspectorate of Finance cannot in any case turn into a consultancy service. This mission is not recognized by the IGF, which only deals with control without expecting anything from the controlled state structures”, explains, under the guise of anonymity, a Finance inspector, disgusted by this direction given to the IGF by Alingete, which “seriously and intentionally violates” the Law organizing this public service.
And another one added: “IGF controls are carried out in accordance with the recognized fundamental steps: a priori control and a posteriori control, to prevent the various cases of financial malfeasance. It never changes format.”
The same inspector is especially disgusted to know that the IGF, Alingete version, demands fees as “service fees” from companies subject to the control of its inspectors.
However, the Order of September 24, 2020 amending and supplementing that of September 15, 1987 establishing and operating the IGF, does not recognize these famous “service fee costs” among the sources of financing for the activities of this public service listed in Article 12 ter.
“This expense report is based on the level of qualification required by the nature and complexity of the work carried out and the time spent by the team of Finance inspectors. Our costs and expert fees for the month of November 2023 amount to one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000.00) US dollars excluding taxes. This amount is based on normal conditions for the progress of our work and on the active assistance of your services,” he justified in his expense report sent to Gécamines, without mentioning any legal provision authorizing him to carry out this act.
Since then, IGF inspectors have been collecting “consultancy fees” from Gécamines, on the instructions of the Chief Inspector of the department, Jules Alingete.
“IGF inspectors are not consultants, although they sometimes carry out concomitant control,” said this inspector who refused to get involved in a predatory enterprise once morest public funds and the Laws of the Republic.
Genesis of the IGF in consultancy mode
The IGF – General Inspectorate of Finance -, to satisfy the gluttony of its leader, switches to consultancy mode thanks to the genius of Alingete. How did we get to this point?
It all started with a correspondence war between the IGF and Gecamines. The former brought allegations of embezzlement once morest the latter, made possible through SIMCO, a company in which Gecamines is the majority shareholder with 99% of the shares.
Allegations that the leaders of this public company have scathingly denied. The IGF persisted in its accusations and established “acts of embezzlement” committed by Gécamines in 2022, relating to payments made by SIMCO, for the benefit of the agents and representatives of this public company, between October and December 2022.
In its press release of October 26, Gécamines regretted seeing the IGF rely on rumors from social networks to establish, without evidence, imaginary acts of embezzlement.
As if to conclude a peace of the brave, Gécamines asked the IGF to transform its control mission into a paid consultancy mission. An enticing request that Alingete might not resist, quickly establishing a mission order of October 3, 2023 referenced as follows: “n°395/PR/IGF/IG-CS/JAK/BAU/2023”.
“Subsidiarily to Mission Order No. 345/PR/IGF/IG-CS/JAK/BEP/2023 of October 3, 2023, Inspector General of Finance Lutete Mvuemba, head of mission, as well as Inspectors of Finance Bambi Mpumbu, Kavuma Kadima, Mbuyi Cikunga and Mabela Mbala are responsible for a consultancy mission with the General of Quarries and Mines, in the provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba,” we read in this mission order established by Jules Alingete.
With this mission order, the inspectors transformed into consultants had to take actions relating to the work they were to carry out for 90 days. This work consisted of proceeding, in concert with the internal services of Gécamines, to the implementation of budgetary, financial, internal control procedures and those relating to public contracts, in particular:
– strengthen existing budgetary, financial and internal control procedures within Gécamines;
– revitalize internal control mechanisms in Gécamines production sites and factories;
– contribute to the implementation of the law relating to public procurement;
– strengthen the capacities of Gécamines staff in the management of budgetary and financial procedures, internal control and public procurement.
The consultant inspectors, according to information obtained by Opinion-infos.cd from official documents, were paid free of charge by Gécamines. Until December 14, this public company had already paid an amount of 150,000 USD out of a total of 7,500,000 USD.
Enough to fatten Alingete and his men, caught red-handed in corruption. With such princely treatment, can these inspectors still work in complete independence?
acturdc.com
2024-07-17 10:38:34
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