Libreville, Monday November 20, 2023 (Infos Gabon) – The working group led by Pierre Duro has diagnosed several abuses in the award of public contracts.
Overbilling blacklisted
On November 15, the Taskforce delivered the progress report on the audit carried out on Gabon’s internal and external debt. The document details from top to bottom the numerous abuses that have punctuated the management of public assets in the award of public contracts. Among the deviances noted, overbilling relating to complicity between company managers and senior civil servants figures prominently. The report highlights regarding the finalization of the work of the previous taskforce created in 2020, that only 32% of cases saw legal action. While 68% of cases are still under investigation or have been dismissed.
For example, the report denounces a budget overrun regarding the Oyem stadium construction site ranging from 45 to 66 billion F. That is a budget increase of 47%. Pierre Duro and his team speak to this effect of a “clear overvaluation of quantities and unit costs”. The Ndjolé-Medouneu section also suffered from “overbilling of around 2.8 billion CFA francs on the structural markets alone, or almost 30% of the initial amount”. As for the “rehabilitation of the roads of Libreville”, we denounce prices per square meter “abnormally high having caused an additional cost of 12 billion CFA francs”.
The rehabilitation and construction plan for technical high schools was marked by “the total absence of competitive bidding and prior publicity for an amount of 9.5 billion CFA francs”. Initially planned for 12 billion F, the construction of the Gamba technical high school experienced “a final budget overrun of 3.5 billion F, not corresponding to any demonstrated technical necessity”. The plan for rehousing displaced people through the development of the Gué-Gué and Terre-Nouvelle watersheds was also not spared from this mismanagement of public finances by their managers. The taskforce denounces “price differences of 45 to 60% compared to market prices”
Recommendations
A range of companies are accused of having fraudulently benefited from the markets.
Following the numerous anomalies criticized, the taskforce recommends that the transitional authorities strengthen controls, greater transparency in tender procedures and the application of exemplary sanctions against those guilty of embezzlement.
FIN/INFOSGABON/SM/2023
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