The Democratic Republic of Congo’s central bank has failed to account for $530-million that State mining company Gecamines says it paid to the government mostly during former President Joseph Kabila’s final term in office, the nation’s top anti-corruption official said.
The disappearance of the so-called tax advances was flagged by Inspector General of Finance Jules Alingete in a letter to a consortium known as Congo Hold-up that’s investigating the biggest leak of financial information from Africa. The consortium is made up of 19 media outlets, including Bloomberg News, and five non-governmental organisations.
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None of this amount has yet been traced to the general treasury account, despite incessant requests” to the central bank, Alingete said in response to questions from the consortium.
The missing payments may represent one of the largest misappropriations of funds documented in Congo, should they remain unaccounted for, Belgium-based anti-corruption group and consortium member Resource Matters said in a separate report published on Thursday.
Gecamines is a key player in the mining industry of Congo, the world’s largest source of cobalt and Africa’s biggest miner of copper — two of the critical metals in the electric-vehicle revolution. The company is a junior partner in joint ventures with many of the biggest copper and cobalt miners in Congo, including Glencore, Eurasia Resources Group and China Molybdenum.
Some of Gecamines’ payments were made immediately after receiving funds from these companies, according to Resource Matters.
China Moly said in a response to questions sent by Resource Matters that while it’s committed to corporate social responsibility and transparency of governance, it’s unable to provide information about the internal affairs of Gecamines. Glencore didn’t answer questions about a particular payment by one of its subsidiaries to Gecamines in 2018, while ERG didn’t respond to requests for comment .