It is in pain that Mrs. Fatoumata Diakité, financial controller at the National Office for Professional Training and Development (ONFPP), left the hearing room of the Court of Auditors this Thursday, March 23, 2023. She had come testify in the trial of Lucien Beindou Guilao (former director general of the ONFPP) and Youssouf Camara (accounting officer of the ONFPP) before the Budget and Financial Discipline Chamber of the Court of Auditors. But, at the end of his testimony at the bar, the Court presided over by Mouctar Bah decided to initiate proceedings once morest him. A situation that surprised the prosecution who also denounced “an extraordinary thing” on the part of the Court, reports Guineematin.com through its team of journalists.
It all started with Youssouf Camara’s statements before the Court to justify the payment of bonuses to former ONFPP leaders. “I only pay on the visa of the financial controller (Madame Fatoumata Diakité)”, he said, while specifying that he has documents to illustrate his words of defense.
The Court then seized this ball on the rebound to call Mrs. Fatoumata Diakité to the bar in order to determine the veracity of the statements of the accounting officer who appeared before her. And, President Mouctar Bah did not spare this financial controller. He unleashed a hurricane of questions once morest this poor woman who was appearing before this court as a simple witness.
“What is your role as financial controller at the ONFPP? What should you do when you are presented with expenses to pay? Have you checked the regularity of these bonuses (paid to the former directors of the ONFPP)? asked Mouctar Bah, among other things, to this witness.
“The financial controller controls the regularity of the expenditure and not the quality of the beneficiary of the expenditure. That is to say that if the expenditure is entered in the budget, it is ordered. Because the financial controller does not control the beneficiary’s right to defence. It is not out of generosity that these payments are made. There is an annual budget which includes a budget line for these bonuses,” replied Ms. Fatoumata Diakité insistently.
After this question-and-answer session, the Court decided, on the spot, to initiate proceedings once morest Mrs. Fatoumata Diakité, without however announcing the reason for these proceedings.
“The Court revokes your witness status and decides to prosecute you. From now on you will appear before this Court as a defendant and you have the right to be assisted by a lawyer”, insisted Mouctar Bah.
Visibly very surprised, the public prosecutor hastened to speak out to protest once morest this attitude of the Court.
“It’s extraordinary what I hear here. The Court cannot prosecute. If you want more information, we agree. But, if you exercise prerogatives which are not yours, the prosecution will make its arrangements”, insisted Mamadou Saliou Diallo, the general commissioner of the government at the Court of Auditors and who acts as prosecutor.
Finally, the Court adjourned the hearing to March 30 at the request of the defendant’s lawyers, Youssouf Camara.
To be continued !
Mamadou Baïlo Keïta and Mohamed Guéasso DORÉ for Guineematin.com