PRESS RELEASE N°22/MCI

 

CAMEROON: CONCEALMENT ATTEMPT ON A MASSIVE

MISAPPROPRIATION OF PUBLIC FUNDS IN THE EBONE COUNCIL!
Mandela Center International, an international NGO in Special Consultative
Status with the United Nations, brings:

TO THE ATTENTION OF THE NATIONAL AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY:

1.  That in its recent Release, Mandela Center International alerted the public to
suspicions of a massive diversion and mismanagement by the municipal executive
of the Ebone Council, located in the Moungo Division, in the North of the Littoral Region,
07 km from Nkongsamba ; 
2. That to conceal these financial irregularities, the Mayor, SIDIKI Félicité ep.
MANON, had used several tricks among which the deposit in the services of the
supervisory ministry, the Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development
(Minddevel) of a 2018 administrative account completely different from that of the
municipal councilors; 
3. That in the documents sent to the trusteeship and, after having consulted those of
the municipal councilors, a differential of near 450 million FCFA emerges
(449,981,727 FCFA treasury account, Balance of credits transferred from the
Cameroon's Public Investment Budget (PIB)); 
4. That the Municipality of Ebone has no company established in its territory, and does
not manage to make a tax revenue of 5,000,000 Fcfa per year, but received in 2015
the sum of 310,160,950 FCFA, from the BIP, in 2016, 419,962,234 FCFA from the
BIP, in 2017, 1,140,184,084 FCFA from the BIP, i.e. a Total of nearly two billion
FCFA which does not benefit the populations of the Municipality of Ebone ; 
5. That several projects are mentioned in the Administrative Accounts but they have
never been carried out or delivered; 
6. That several works undertaken by the municipal executive, some of which have not
been the subject of an open national tender, have never been delivered or executed; 

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7. That these financial embezzlements are recorded while the municipality is bowing
under the cost of a debt worth 531,707,294 FCFA with the Special Fund for Equipment
and Inter-municipal Intervention (FEICOM); 
8. Mandela Center International had assumed its responsibilities before History by
seizing in EMERGENCY the Minister of Finance, the Minister of State,
Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals, the Minister of Decentralization
and Local Development, the Minister Delegate to the Presidency of the
Republic in charge of Superior State Control (Council for Budgetary and
Financial Discipline (CDBF), the Public Prosecutor at the Special Criminal
Court, the National Agency for Financial Investigation (NAFI), the
National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Chamber
of Accounts of the Supreme Court of Cameroon to demand the opening of
an investigation in the EBONE Council in order to severely punish those
responsible; 
9. That in reaction to this denunciation of the prevarication of public funds, the Mayor,
SIDIKI Félicité ep. MANON and his team, who do not refute the facts, engaged in a
veritable evasion by resorting to a sabotage operation of actions of Mandela Center
International through media committed to their cause, including television channels
funded with the fruit of said embezzlement;
10. That individuals from the entourage of the municipal executive, although belonging
to certain public structures, attempted, in vain, to corrupt Mandela Center
International;
11. That some individuals have embarked on a vast campaign of open threats and
challenges to Mandela Center International;
12. That the lives of some local elites suspected of being informants, of an attempt to
destabilize the council, are in serious danger and some of these elites have been forced
to leave the communal territory to seek shelter elsewhere;
13. That the mayor and his team would do better to make their mea culpa or to provide
evidence to the contrary of the facts denounced, with vigor, by Mandela Center
International than to be content to call the media to discredit the NGO by giving the
impression that everything is fine in Nlonako while citizens are threatened, abducted
overnight and beaten in the bush in retaliation for their disagreement for communal
policy, like these ransoms demanded from the populations every day to have the right
to water consumption;
14. That Mandela Center International relies exclusively on well-documented facts
during its fact-finding mission in the Commune of Eboné, of which it has been able to
measure the extent and the level of suffering of the populations;

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15. That since these denunciations, Mandela Center International is still awaiting
concrete actions undertaken by the public authorities and the general prosecutor's office
of the Special Criminal Court against the prevaricators;
16. That the Mayor, SIDIKI Félicité ep. MANON, instead of giving an assessment of her
scandalous management, tries to deceive the populations of this part of the territory to
re-stack a new hellish mandate in the head of this territorial decentralized collectivity
after the legislative and municipal elections of February 9th;
17. That this indecency of the mayor SIDIKI Félicité, ep. Manon is constitutive of falsified
Public Act, Document or Record provided by SECTION 205 of the Law N°2016/007
of 12 July 2016 relating to the Penal Code, management fault provided for by Law N
° 74-18 of December 05, 1974 relating to the control of authorizing officers and
managers of public credits and companies of State, in its Sections 3 and 6, of
the misappropriation of public funds, provided for and punished, by Section 184 of
Law No. 2016/007 of 12 July 2016 relating to the Penal Code; 
18. That these management shortcomings appear so serious that they should be
severely penalized; 
19. That the Superior State Control services (CONSUPE), organized by Presidential
Decree No. 2013/287 of September 4, 2013, play a central role in the protection of
public wealth and the fight against embezzlement of public funds;
20.That the African Charter on Democracy and Good Governance (CADEG)
ratified by the Cameroonian government compels it to promote the creation of the
conditions necessary to facilitate citizen participation, transparency, access to
information, freedom of the press and accountability for the management of public
affairs; 
21. That the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a number of
international conventions which define the minimum standards necessary to guarantee
human dignity establish the links which exist between good governance and human
rights in four areas: democratic institutions, state services, the rule of law and
anti-corruption measures; 
22. That the Cameroonian State had made a firm commitment on 16 January 2012
through the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (CADEG)
adopted in Addis Ababa on 30 June 2007 to ensure “the effective participation of citizens
in democratic and development processes and the management of public affairs,
transparency and justice in the management of public affairs, condemn and punish all
acts of corruption, offenses and related impunity ”; 
23. That through Section 14 of the African Charter of Values and Principles of
Decentralization, Local Governance and Local Development adopted in Malabo
on 27 June 2014 and ratified by Cameroon on 31st October 2019, Cameroonian

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government was committed to ensuring that "local public officials display ethical
behavior
  of integrity in the performance of their duties"; 
24. That the main objective of the said Charter is to promote the participation of civil
society, the private sector and the population in decentralization, local governance and
local development initiatives, of which Mandela Center International cannot, under any
pretext, shirk.

IN VIEW OF ALL THE ABOVE, MANDELA CENTER INTERNATIONAL: 

1. Firmly, takes note, of the seriousness of the public authorities of the scale of these 
embezzlements  and  firmly  demands  more  vigorous  actions  by  the  Cameroonian 
authorities; 
2. Clearly reassures the opinion that Mandela Center International is INCORRUPTIBLE 
and will NEVER yield to any threat or intimidation of any kind or from whatever source 
in its mission of public safety enshrined in international legal instruments; 
3. Clearly calls on the Cameroonian authorities to take all the necessary measures to put 
an end to threats of all kinds facing some elites and citizens in the locality of Ebone; 
4.  Reaffirms,  with  firmness,  the  determination  of  Mandela  Center  International  to 
ensure, without respite and whatever the price to pay, that the perpetrators are held 
accountable.  
.…………………………………………………………… 

For further information, please contact us at the following addresses: 
Email: mandelacenterinternational@yahoo.com Or comptoirasssitancejudiciaire@gmail.com Or     
 Tél.  :   (00237) 679 79 81 80  /  678 912 205  / 699 25 87 77      
                                                                                                  
     Done at Yaoundé, on 07 February 2020
The Permanent Executive Secretary  
 

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