Senegalese civil society group recordsdata grievance after billions misplaced to misuse of Covid funds

A gaggle of Senegalese organizations from the civil society and residents filed Monday (Feb. 06) a grievance with the Dakar court docket to ask the courts to take up the Covid-19 mismanagement case.

The transfer by « Sunu’y milliards du ress », « our billions won’t disappear » collective follows the publication of a report by the Courtroom of Auditors on the finish of December which pinned the administration of the Covid response funds in 2020-2021.

The audit of the Courtroom of Accounts of Senegal studied the expenditures made in 2020 and 2021 on the “Response Fund in opposition to the consequences of Covid-19”. The finances amounted to greater than 740 billion CFA francs (greater than 1.1 billion euros), financed by donors and the state, in accordance with this report printed on the web site of the audit establishment connected to the Presidency.

“The full quantity of expenditures (made by numerous ministries and) not associated to covid-19 quantities to 19,727,096,727 CFA francs” (about 30 million euros), the doc revealed.

Based on RFI journalists, the grievance demanding the opening of a judicial investigation concentrating on the folks talked about within the report of the Courtroom of Auditors.

The grievance shall be filed with the general public prosecutor and the “Sunu’y milliards du ress” collective invitations residents to file the identical grievance individually.

Throughout his handle to the nation on New Yr’s Eve, president Macky Sall vowed justice will observe its due course.

The Dakar prosecutor stated Monday preliminary investigations had been opened, vowing to take to court docket all these concerned within the funds’ mismanagement.

Many officers in sub-Saharan Africa are suspected of misappropriating or mismanaging funds devoted to combating the Covid-19 pandemic, together with in Ghana, Cameroon, Guinea and South Africa.

Irregularities in Togo

In Togo, the Courtroom of Accounts printed on late January its report following the audit of the administration of state Covid.

The COVID-19 Response and Solidarity Fund (FRSC) was endowed with 400 billion CFA francs, which may for use over a number of years. It’s distributed as follows: well being response (110 billion); resilience (110 billion) and financial restoration (180 billion).

The our bodies which have been audited are ministerial departments which acquired, sources from the FRSC and used them to implement expenditures for the response, resilience or financial and social response, resilience or financial and social measures.

Amongst irregulars the Courtroom of Accounts discovered that some accommodations and hostels that have been to be requisitioned by the tourism minister with a view to home Covid-positive sufferers had been shortlisted by prefects. On the bottom, these constructions are both hostels, villas -belonging to native officials- and dwellings, camps, lodges, reception facilities with some unsuitable for correct lodging.

The report additionally famous that “virtually all transactions” for the supply of funds and the fee of expenditures beneath the FRSC have been made in money, whatever the quantity, which generally run into a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of CFA francs, in contravention of the regulatory fee strategies that restrict such funds to 100,000 CFA francs.

Along with that, “remuneration with no authorized floor” was paid to committee members and sure so-called assist workers.

“The person month-to-month quantities of those bonuses allotted to each civilian and army personnel fluctuate from 50,000 CFA francs to 1,100,000 CFA francs”, the report reads. Including no “indication of the premise for these variations” was supplied. 

Based on the Institute for Safety Research (ISS), widespread corruption in the course of the pandemic additional worsened the impact of COVID-19 on Africa’s economic system.

Extra sources • APA information – RFI – TV5 Monde