Theft of 24 BFCFA: If only Mebe Ngo'o had declared his assets!.

03/02/2023

The conviction of all-powerful Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo'o, former Defence Minister and ex-Delegate General of National Security for embezzlement of public funds really does not make any scoop.

After all, former Prime Minister and at least three ex-Secretaries Generals at the Presidency of the Republic had before him been jailed for the same offence of embezzling public money in a country that lags in all facets of infrastructural development.

His wife, Bernadette Minla'a Nkoulou, who had managed 113 contracts under the Ministry of Defence while her husband was the minister was also found guilty of complicity in the misappropriation of public funds of about five billion FCFA and sentenced 10 years.

If there was any breaking news, it was just that he went away with 30 years of imprisonment for embezzling 23.9 billion FCFA through overbilling of contracts while Zacchaeus Mungwé Forjindam, former General Manager of Chantier Naval in Douala is known to have been served a life sentence for pilfering less than one billion francs from the state enterprise.

Whatever the gymnastics in the legal system, stealing the sum of 24 billion is alarming to say the least. The annual budgets of the Regional Assemblies of the North West and South West regions for this year is less than six billion FCFA.

But here is a man and his wife effortless racking nearly 30 billion francs despite the lavish trappings provided him as a member of government to serve the people.

When Mebe Ngo'o whose signature appears on the national identity cards of many Cameroonians was in office, he was seen as untouchable.

But thanks to President Biya's policy of rigour and moralisation and his declared "war" against illicit wealth, he allowed the suspects to face the excruciating sword of justice.

Mebe Ngo'o certainly is not the only member of government who has fallen from grace to grass in prison.

Others before him in higher echelons of state protocol are in Kondengui maximum security prison and this daily newspaper can bet that whenever President Biya reshuffles his cabinet, many would join what is mockingly known as "government in Kondengui"

It is an illustration of a country that should be guided by the rule of law, upholding, promoting accountability, and ensuring the integrity of those who hold public office.

But the level of impunity to the point one man and his wife can embezzle amounts five times the combined annual budgets of two regions, for instance, calls for blasting alarm.

The Special Criminal Court, SCC, created in 2011 with jurisdiction to entertain misappropriation of public funds and embezzlement cases where the amount is equal to or higher than 50 million FCFA was seen as a deterrent.

But it has not scared any embezzler. After all, many of them in high offices cover their tracks until they get drunken with the illicit wealth and flaunt their assets of doom to the provocation of the public.

At one point, the SCC announced it had recovered some seven billon FCFA and paid it into the treasury. But most often, those convicted are on the wrong side of age and coupled with the stress of a punitive transition from ostentatious lifestyle to a prisoner, some who appeal their verdicts have died in prisons without their appeals to the Supreme Court being decided. What then becomes of the stolen public funds?

The SCC being overwhelmed since it operates only in Yaounde took four long years for instance to give judgment in Mebe Ngo'o case. Many others are languishing awaiting trial, yet embezzlers are not scared or deterred.

Many top government officials are known to own assets that are far above their genuine income. Directors earning less than 500,000 FCFA have mansions and landed properties that could be a hundred times more than their earnings.

Some even drive luxurious cars valued at 100 million FCFA and have more than one, yet no one bothers to ask. Others have bought mansions in Europe and the United States, despite their peanut genuine earnings.

They do that because of impunity that is in vogue but at the detriment of ridiculing the Biya regime and slowing down development and provision of social amenities.

The case of Mebe Ngo'o and others before him does not only inflict pains on them but ignominy on the government for failing in governance.

If Mebe Ngo'o had declared his assets as stipulated in article 66 of the January 18, 1996 constitution, he would have felt ashamed to embezzle the billions because the properties would betray him.

He would have been embarrassed to be seen as having illicit properties especially being a defence and police chief at various stages of serving in the government.

But it is a regime where nobody declares his wealth. There is impunity and who cares if a director in the ministry or Member of a Parliamentary Bureau earning about a million francs a month, builds mansions worth over 10 billion?

That is impunity, but it does the government no good rather than lower its credibility both at home and the international scene where it very often goes borrowing and luring investors. Implement declaration of assets and curb the rate and volume of stealing public money by those who think they are untouchable.