Throughout his testimony Vital Kamerhe has referred to a contract signed by former Minister of Rural Development Justin Bitakwira to justify the payment of USD57 million to Samih Jammal.
Indeed a contract agreement was signed in 2018 between Bitakwira and Jammal, for the construction of 900 prefab houses in various Provinces accross the Democratic Republic of Congo; it was also agreed that Jammal's company Samibo (which was going to construct the houses) would be paid USD 26 million for the project.
However this payment was never made and the work could not be done.
Jammal however continued to make arrangements to get hold of the money.
His luck then came about when Vital Kamerhe was appointed Chief of Staff of President Felix Tshisekedi, after the December 2018 General Elections.
Samih Jammal managed to strike a deal with the new Chief of Staff for the contract to be revived. Not only did Kamerhe agree to approve the contract, he also modified it by increasing the value of the project to USD57 million. It was also agreed that 1500 housing units would be built as opposed to the initial 900.
But the new contract was never submitted to the Director General of Public Procurement, for review and authorisation; as required by the law. Kamerhe rather used his influence and position as Chief of Staff to force the minister of finance to disburse the amount of USD57 million to Mr Jammal.
This amount instead of being paid into the account of Jammal's company Samibo (under which the contract was signed), it was deposited into an unknown account at Rawbank. According to the banking details the entire amount was soon withdrawn.
So far Kamerhe has failed to prove that the contract signed between the Congolese government and Samibo for the construction of 1500 prefab housing units, at a cost of USD57 million, was signed by Justin Bitakwira. Kamerhe will also need to justify why he ordered the disbursement of such amount without the contract being authorised by the Public Procurement Regulatory body. These are the main key points which would prove his innocence.
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