Joe Dinga Pefok
31 August 2007
Buea — The ongoing embezzlement case against the former General Manager of Port Authority of Douala, PAD, Alphonse Siyam Siewe, and 11 others has taken yet another amazing turn.
On August 28-29, the former Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge, and a former Minister of Transport, Tsanga Abanda (RIP), were cited as having been at the forefront of probably the biggest award in a "controversial contract" ever in the history of PAD.
The award is said to involve at least 6 billion Japanese yens (FCFA 36 billion) in a contract to modernise the container terminal at Douala Port. The prosecution team in the embezzlement case led by State Counsel, Amadou Souley, accuses the former General Manager of PAD, Siyam Siewe (also former Minister of Water and Energy), during whose management period (1991-2005), the gigantic colossal contract was awarded as well as executed, of having embezzled FCFA 7 billion.
On the other hand, Siyam and his lawyers strongly reject the charges. They argue that in the first place, the contract for the container terminal project was neither awarded nor paid for by PAD, and thus irrational to accuse the former General Manager for what he never handled.
In a long defence presented on August 28 by Siyam Siewe, following the accusation read out by the presiding judge, Mounyol à Mboussi, the former General Manager who came to court with tons of documents, argued that he was the wrong person to be summoned to answer any charge about the award of the contract for the container terminal or about its financing.
Siyam explained that before he was appointed General Manager of PAD, discussion had been going on between the governments of Cameroon and Japan for the modernisation of the container terminal.
He said the Cameroon government had contacted Japan for a loan to fund the project. Japan had accepted to grant the loan and a convention to that effect was signed.
Japanese Land Contract
In 1999 the then Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge, would sign the document that awarded the contract for the container terminal project to a Japanese company called Mitsue and Co Ltd.
The cost of the contract stood at the equivalent of FCFA 36 billion and it was officially awarded by the Cameroon government and not by PAD, though in reality the government was acting on behalf of PAD.
It would be recalled that Tsanga Abanda had to travel abroad to sign some of the documents related to the financing of the container terminal. Nonetheless, Siewe explained in court that neither the Cameroon government nor PAD physically touched the loan as the Japanese government directed it straight into the account of Mitsue and Co., out there in Japan.
RAZEL As Sub-contractor
It is reported that Mitsue and CO. split up the contract and gave them out in portions to sub-contractors, with the French construction company, RAZEL, grabbing the biggest chunk which was the most difficult part of the project - the civil engineering work at the at the Douala Port.
A breakdown of the contract indicated that the Japanese company was paid FCFA 19 billion for the part it gave out to RAZEL. But then during investigations in Douala last year linked to Siewe's tenure at PAD, the team from the Higher State Control in Yaounde, discovered that the Japanese company paid RAZEL FCFA 12 billion and not FCFA 19 billion.
The Japanese company was, therefore, seen to have pocketed as much as FCFA 7 billion out of FCFA 19 billion. Interestingly, the prosecution is considering the FCFA 7 billion as part of the money which the former General Manager allegedly embezzled at PAD.
Stormy Cross-examination
The presiding judge and the prosecution had it difficult with Siyam Siewe during cross-examination. The former PAD Manager who looked angry refused to answer most of the questions on grounds that they either did not make sense or that he was not the right person to be asked.
He insisted that he neither signed the contract for the container terminal project nor was the payment done by PAD.He also insisted that PAD knew but Mitsue and Co as the contractor of the container terminal project and not RAZEL which was a sub-contractor to the Japanese company.
Siyam's lawyers also argued that normally what happens between a contractor and a sub-contractor, especially in financial terms, is not supposed to be the concern of the owner of the project.
A company can get a contract for FCFA 20 million, and give it out to a sub-contractor for FCFA one million, he said. As long as the job is done as initially agreed with the main contractor, there should be no fuss.
They thus, questioned the court's interest in the business of a contractor and a sub-contractor in the container terminal project when none of the parties has complained.
They also recalled that in the preliminary stage of the ongoing case against their client, an authority of the RAZEL had told the court that the company had business with Mitsue and Co, and not with PAD.
The defence lawyers also insisted that the right persons to bring to court to answer questions about the contract and finances should be those who signed the documents, that is former Prime Minister, Mafany Musonge, and the Tsanga Abanda on the one hand, and the main contractor, Mitsue and Co. The lawyers as well fumed that instead of the prosecution inviting Mitsue and Co to court to talk about the FCFA 7 billion, if they were so interested, they are instead holding their client responsible for what he did not know.
Secret Deal?
Observers say from the look of things, the prosecution in the embezzlement case including the Cameroon government, are suspecting that there was a secret deal between Mitsue and Co. and Siyam Siewe as well as some of the Cameroonian officials who were involved in the discussions about the award of the project, for its cost to be inflated.
In such a situation, the Cameroonians involved in the deal were to get their cuts from the Japanese company. The situation looks much more difficult for the prosecution as they look seem unwilling to invite the principal parties that were involved in the FCFA 36 billion contract award to come to court as the defence is insisting.
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