Kini Nsom
21 April 2008
The anti-corruption dragnet may not close up on the erstwhile Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Jean Marie Atangana Mebara, soon.
Atangana Mebara, The Post learnt, has been living in the watchful eyes of security operatives ever since his former colleagues, Polycarpe Abah Abah and Urbain Olanguena Owono were arrested on charges of embezzlement of State funds.
But Mebara's case that has to do with a FCFA 100 billion embezzlement scandal that surrounded the buying of the Presidential plane some few years back is said to be very complicated.
The Post learnt from security sources that government is no longer hot arresting the former minister for because this would implicate many other highly officials. Many government officials are said to have lined their pockets from the shady deal even though it is only Atangana Mebara's name that features top in the list.
What triggered the matter was the very poor quality plane that was soon replete with technical faults. It was said that upon investigations, government discovered that over FCFA 100 billion that was taken out of the State coffers was several times more than the quality of the plane. It was reported that officials who handled the file unduly lined their pockets with much of the money.
At the centre of the controversy stood Atangana Mebara, who was the Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic at the time. Press reports equally link up the name of Prime Minister, Chief Ephraim Inoni, to the deal given that he was then the Deputy Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic at the time the albatross was bought.
But in a volt face reaction to the allegations in an exclusive interview with the BBC last week, Chief Inoni said he would not mind going to clarify the issue in court if he is called up. He said this was even more incumbent on him because he is leading a government that is, more than ever, determined to crush corruption and make sure that public funds are free from unscrupulous hands.
Apart from Chief Inoni, many more top government functionaries are said to be deeply involved in the financial scam and that the Biya government would virtually collapse if all of them were not prosecuted. The then Director of the Civil Cabinet, Alain Mebe Ngo, who is now Delegate General of National Security, and the former General Manager of CAMAIR, Yves Michel Fotso, are some of those who have been targeted for questioning if government decides to proceed with the case.
Observers say the Biya regime will more or less be in a suicide mission if it decides to prosecute all those involved in the albatross deal. In the event of such a situation, Biya's anti-corruption drive, known as operation sparrow hawk, is, by every sense, hitting a stonewall.
Moreover, President Paul Biya recently pushed the onslaught down the abyss of controversy when he created an inter-ministerial committee to handle the funds of government officials who are being investigated for financial crimes. Many people are wondering what kind of enigma Biya is, given that some of the government officials he appointed to join the Minister of Justice, Amadou Ali, in the onslaught, are some of those who have been earmarked for investigation.
The Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Laurent Esso, the Delegate General for National Security, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo'o, and the Secretary of State in charge of the Gendarmerie, Jean-Baptiste Bokam, are all members of the committee who, ironically have their names in the list of alleged economic criminals.
Observers of government's anti- corruption drive hold that President Biya has the bad habit of always initiating legal action against alleged corrupt government officials only when enormous damage has been done. Former Minister and no nonsense politician, Garga Haman Adji, told The Post that as Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, he submitted a list of corrupt officials who were wrecking great havoc on the State Treasury to the President but no action was taken.
The Post learnt that a former Transport Minister met President Biya as far back as 2001 and reported to him that the then General Manager of the Autonomous Port of Douala, Alphonse Siyam Siewe, was swindling the outfit's money, but the President reportedly ignored the Minister and instead appointed Siyam Siewe the Minister of Mines, Water Resource and Energy.
He was only arrested in 2006. In the same vein, the President is said to have received evidence that Polycape Abah Abah was embezzling billions of State funds in 2000 when he was still Director of Taxation.
In an apparent scorn of an SDF motion at the National Assembly that a Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry be created to investigate Abah Abah's alleged embezzlement of public funds, Biya appointed Abah Abah Minister of the Economy and Finance. Abah Abah, who is in pre-trial detention at the Kondengui prison on charges of the embezzlement of FCFA 20 billion, was only arrested two weeks ago.
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