Ebolowa Anti-Corruption Clinic; CONAC arrests five suspects
The Anti-Corruption Clinic, a CONAC initiative to bring the public closer to the Commission by receiving reports of corruption and examining them in real time, ran from the 15th to the 19th of April, 2024.
The activity, which was basically repressive, was supervised in the South Region by the Chairman of CONAC, Reverend Doctor Dieudonné MASSI GAMS, who deployed four teams of investigators and a pool of secretaries in the Conference Room of the South Regional Delegation for Tourism and Leisure.
During the week-long operation, 54 reported cases of corruption were examined by CONAC staff deployed to Ebolowa. The CONAC investigators worked in several sub-divisions of the South Region, including Mintom, Ambam, Biwong Bulu, Mengong, Ebolowa 1 and Ebolowa 2, to verify the allegations made by victims or witnesses of those corrupt practices.
One of the most remarkable cases was the arrangement between some logging companies and the Mekotto Weighing Station in Mintom Sub-division, to avoid having their truck loads weighed, to the detriment of the State. Two timber truck drivers were caught red-handed on the 15th of April, 2024 and fined CFA 1,000,000 (one million) francs in compliance with the relevant regulations.
Another case was the alleged irrational management of the running costs of government schools in Ambam by the Sub-divisional Inspector, whose husband, now on retirement, was involved in the management of the Inspectorate. As a result, the Inspector’s husband was referred to court. Again, two employees of Akoulouzock tollgate in Ambam and a call-box operator, a de facto toll collector, were arrested for usurpation and complicity in usurpation of functions.
At Biwong Bulu Council, the Secretary General, who was also a member of the Reception Committee for Services rendered under Administrative Purchase Orders, was arrested for receiving and paying for services that had not been carried out or had only been partially carried out. He was also referred to court. This brought to five the total number of persons accused of acts of corruption or similar offences arrested and handed over to judicial authorities by the CONAC.