The Great Clean-up... Or Wool Over Our Eyes?

By Dibussi Tande

On January 23, 2006, Amadou Ali, Cameroon’s Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, who also doubles as Vice Prime Minister, revealed to the press that the judiciary was reviewing some six files on corruption. About a month later, on February 21, 2006, a terse statement from the Minister informed the public that "Judicial cases have been opened against a number of officials accused of embezzlement, corruption, forgery and use of forgeries."

Although the statement did not mention any names, the identity of those caught in the anti-corruption dragnet was known throughout the country in a matter of hours, thanks to spectacular police raids on the residences of three erstwhile “untouchables” who once headed some of the most “lucrative” public corporations in the country:

1. Emmanuel Gérard Ondo Ndong former Director General of FEICOM (in charge of financial assistance to local councils);
2. Gilles Roger Bélinga former Director General of the Cameroon Real Estate Company (SIC), and
3. Joseph Edou, former Director General state land loan fund - Crédit Foncier du Cameroun.

13 other top to mid-level government functionaries were picked up within 24 hrs of the announcement, and were all transferred to the notorious Kondengui central prison in Yaounde.

A few days later on February 24th, Alphonse Siyam Siewé, Minister of Water and Energy was unceremoniously fired. Before taking office in December 2004 he had served as the head of the Cameroon Ports Authority, one of the most corrupt institutions in the country...

These are definitely very interesting times indeed as there is talk of close to 100 additional heads being put on the chopping block in the coming weeks.

So what is behind the dramatic arrest of erstwhile barons of the regime? Is the ongoing campaign merely a cynical maneuver by the Biya regime to placate the international donor community which has been steadily losing its patience over Cameroon’s terrible corruption record? Also, can the Biya regime carry out a true anti-corruption drive without collapsing under the weight of past (and current) financial improprieties which permeate the entire system, and have always been tolerated, if not celebrated?

International Pressure
The anti-corruption campaign is coming at a time when the international community is putting immense pressure on the Biya regime to clean up its act and deal squarely with corruption. And unlike past years, Biya can no longer simply shrug off the concerns of the international community. Cameroon is currently fighting tooth and nail to reach the completion point of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, which will result in the cancellation of debts worth some FCFA 1400 billion. In fact, the Government hopes to successfully reach the HIPC completion point during the first semester of 2006.

Donor institutions such as the IMF and major donor countries such as the United States have publicly stated that corruption is hampering the implementation of integrated poverty reduction and economic reform programs in the country, and that it is an “obstacle to debt relief”. They have warned authorities that Cameroon will most likely not qualify for HIPC debt relief if it does not take concrete measures to curb corruption and punish those government functionaries who have swindled money. It is worth noting that Amadou Ali’s revelation of the existence of files on corruption was made barely three days before the arrival of an IMF delegation. Coincidence or strategy?

The mounting impatience of the international community with the Biya regime manifested itself in a most public manner on January 19, 2006. During a press conference on the socio-political situation in Cameroon, United States Ambassador to Cameroon, Neils Marquardt, abandoned diplomatic restraint and niceties, and publicly took the Biya regime to task for its nonchalant attitude towards corruption:

It is not enough to publish the names of those suspected of corruption or to fire them from their positions. Those accused of corruption must be formally charged, tried in court and sentenced, if found guilty. Their ill-gotten gains must be confiscated and returned to the public treasury from which it was stolen. Cameroon must show itself and the world that this type of crime does not pay.

Skepticism and Hope
As Cameroonians watch the drama unfold with a mixture of skepticism and hope, questions still remain about the extent of the ongoing campaign. Will it end with a few symbolic arrests and trials – as in the past - or is a revolution at hand – as the government media claims?

While more arrests are expected in the near future, including a possible cabinet reshuffle, it is unlikely that we are witnessing the beginnings of a political revolution in Cameroon. Given that the Biya regime has survived thus far primarily through corruption and graft, any systemic shift from that culture of corruption will threaten the foundations of the regime and may lead to regime collapse. So while the Biya regime will do enough to get the thumbs-up from the international community (and satisfy the bloodlust of the Cameroonian masses), it will certainly not go so far as to commit political hara-kiri.

In any event, while waiting for the situation to clarify itself, “we the people” can only seat back and enjoy the spectacle of an entire political class gripped by the sheer terror of not knowing what tomorrow holds…

Tags: Cameroon Africa Corruption

Comments

[Nkosi Jacob]

As Mr Biya begins this 'sweep' as some call it, our fervent wish is that it is sincere. But sincerity is indeed the issue at hand because this fight against corruption is not home-inspired. It is said that it is due to pressure from foreign donors and the Bretton Woods Institutions that Biya has begun 'prosecuting' some of his henchmen.
These are men whom have sent their hands deep into the coffers of the entreprises they manage to finance the ruling party and by so doing themselves.If there is indeed sincerity in all this, then Biya has to end up arresting himself. What happened to SCB? What happened to CAMBANK? There are many other state corporations that have been pillaged either by Biya himself or by his cohorts. Remember he started by asking: " OU SONT LES PREUVES?"

Friday afternoon he sacked SIYAM SIWE hitherto manager of the Ports Authority, Mayor of Bafang and Energy Minister after several hours of inquisition by the Gendarmerie. We are watching.......

[Dibussi]

Accordig to a report by the French news agency (AFP), the following individuals were also arrested this week:
- Joseph Ingwatt II, former Director General of Cocoa Development Corporation (SODECAO) who once served as the Inspector General of Credit Foncier;
- Dieudonné Nzoké, Government Delegate of the Edea Urban Council since December 2003, who started his career at Credit foncier in 1978.

[Rogers Tabe]

It is now very clear that the desire to 'beg for the cancellation of stolen money' by President Biya and his group of sychophants is inducing him to simulate a 'clean-up campaign' that in reality is too shallow to give us Cameroonians any cause for hope. It is a fact that from Mr.Biya to most of the least of the 'sous-directeur', the greater number of the those 'owing stolen money' to Cameroonians is still 'at large'. We have always known that these unscrupulous and non-God-fearing politicains,bureaucrats and technocrats have been at the origin of the 'erosion of livelihoods' for the poor and socially excluded ordinary Cameroonins who have always been made to believe that they are not responsible for their destitution but the government is not responsible either. Yet the common Cameroonian has never been fooled of the fact that his 'native land' is naturally rich as not to be a big source of poverty for him, therefore it is those who control the 'means' of exploiting these riches that cause their misery.
Yet, when I finish reading this article , like when i finnished reading several of its sister articles in the past, one question has always been disturbing my mind: is it the imprisonment of these Mr.Biya's bedfellows that will refill the accounts that have been emptied?Let Mr. Biya and his colleagues take note: in addition to imprisoning his well-schooled chidren, he should remeber(in case they claim to be forgetting) to be seizing their property and money and returning it into state accounts for our hearts to know that yes truly this time our riches are seeing the roads to the right accounts. We will not mind that which these 'whitecollar robbers' and their families have already consumed into thier bodies in the form of food and rich schools but we surely will mind having back all that we can still use. If these international whosever (causing the father to be mussling his children) are really serious this time, let them remeber Etoudi to start collecting what rirgthfully belongs to the public from these rogues.
Rogers Tabe (son of Egbe Eyong-Orock)
From Vaasa.

[Watesih]

BIYA'S EPITAPH!

"Here lies a man whose intentions were
impure and who had the fortune to
share a bed of homosexuality with his
brothers and friends in Kondengui"

[kalu]

Nna,
Na where you dey blog from? Great stuff!!

[mbanya]

Le Messager reports that Prime Minister Inoni left for the United States to meet with IMF and world bank officials. hmmm, talk about going to give a report about cameroon's "tough stance on corruption". yep, it is "wool over eyes"
http://www.cameroon-info.net/cmi_show_news.php?id=17350

[alobwede]

Cameroon violating graft suspects' rights - lawyer

By Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Twenty-four officials detained in Cameroon on corruption charges, including a former minister, are being held incommunicado in violation of their civil rights, a senior lawyer said on Wednesday.

The officials, detained in a drive by President Paul Biya's government to end Cameroon's reputation as one of the world's most corrupt nations, have been prevented from seeing lawyers or family members, according to the lawyer, who is a top member of Cameroon's bar council.

"Their legal counsels went to the prison to meet them but were turned away," Sylvestre Mben, the representative of the bar council for Centre, South and East provinces, told reporters.

"This constitutes a serious violation of the detainees' basic rights and right to judicial counsel and raises strong questions about the quality of justice to be delivered," he said.

"We've raised strong objections to this. I have the impression they are being held in a secret place," said Mben, adding that Cameroonian authorities have in the past treated those accused of corruption as guilty until proven innocent.

The detainees include former Water and Energy Minister Alphonse Siyam Siewe who was sacked last Friday. His dismissal came just three days after the arrest of three ex-managers of state corporations, together with 13 of their aides, on charges of corruption, embezzlement and abuse of office.

The other detainees include a former delegate to the Edea urban council, 65 km (40 miles) east of Cameroon's commercial capital of Douala.

In 1998 and 1999 Cameroon was ranked as the most corrupt country in the world by Berlin-based lobby group Transparency International, and it has remained in the top 10 ever since.

Authorities at the Yaounde-Nkondengui maximum security prison, where the suspects have been held since last week, said they were following orders.

"We've received instructions from the top hierarchy not to allow them have any contact any body from outside," said a prison superintendent, who asked not to be identified.

He suggested authorities may fear the detainees would use contacts outside the prison to destroy evidence against them or hide some of the alleged stolen property and money.

The International Monetary Fund has identified widespread corruption as a possible obstacle to debt cancellation. Cameroon hopes to qualify for a programme of debt relief to the world's poorest countries by the middle of this year.

[Misodi Jones]

Hi Tande,

I write this to first of all appreciate the good work that you and your team have been doing and to say long time no see.

I am not sure anything good will come out of the mirage just going on in Cameroon. How can a thief sanction other thieves. Biya is the most infected of them and the more he continues being the "Head of State" of that country, corruption will always remain the best friend of his regime.

It is a shame to all those Cameroonians who gave him another seven years mandate. Why are you Cameroonians crying now? You voted for him and his ministers and Directors to continue stealing your money. So why all the noise. I have never in my life expected that Cameroonians could be very docile to a fault.

You gave Biya a new mandate till 2011. Let me inform you that Cameroon will be privatised in 2010 by Biya. It is only then that you people will get up from your slumber. I ask that those who voted for Biya in any election especially the last election, should ask God to forgive them for they did not only sell their country but also their consciences.