The Commercial Court in Kinshasa will today hear an application brought forward by organisation 'CONGO NOT FOR SALE' against Belgium based Company Semlex(Locosem), which it accuses of corruption and money laundering.
According to the organisation, the 2015 contract signed between the Congolese government and Semlex, on the production of biometric passports, was unlawful and resulted in corrupt activities.
It's also believed that Semlex had failed to meet its contractual obligation as only 693 000 of the 1850 000 passports had been delivered, while the contract expires in 3 days.
The government has already confirmed that it will not renew the contract with the Belgium company. It will also be represented at the hearing, together with the national procurement regulatory body.
Based on an investigation carried out by news agency Reuters, in 2017, it appeared that Semlex was to charge USD185 for each passport and would return USD65 from that amount to the Congolese national treasury.
The investigation also discovered that a company owned by one of the relatives of former President Joseph Kabila, was benefitting from the contract. The company, LRPS registered under Makie Makolo Wangoi is said to have been receiving USD60 from each passport sale.
The organisation CONGO NOT FOR SALE issued a further statement, saying that LRPS had pocketed USD36 million from the deal.
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