Hamadou Tidiane Sy
9 July 2008
Dakar — To many in Abidjan the news came as a shock.
In less than two weeks, late June, a spate of arrests took place in Cote d'Ivoire with the most powerful players in the strategic cocoa sector sent to jail one after the other, all accused of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, mismanagement and forging documents.
In Cote d'Ivoire, cocoa is what oil or gold is to other nations.
In 2007, according to estimates from the World Cocoa organisation, Cote d'Ivoire produced 37.4 per cent of the total 3.5 million tonnes harvested in the world, this represents 1.3 million tonnes.
In comparison, the second producer, Ghana only harvested half the same quantity with 720 thousand tonnes, and it is believed that some of the Ghanaian product is indeed from Cote d'Ivoire and has been sold in Ghana by traffickers, profiteering from the six-year crisis the francophone neighbour has been going through.
In any case Cote d'Ivoire still remains the world's largest producer of cocoa and the product remains a strategic component of the nation's economy.
Thus touching such a critical sector was no easy game, and shaking its key players could have serious consequences for the national economy, but also some social and political impact.
For President Laurent Gbagbo, who undertook an important restructuring of the cocoa sector when he came to power, this meant he was admitting his own failures, as all the detained people were put at the top of organisations he helped create.
Five organisations
In total they were five organisations, and none of these has been properly managed. As a result, many of the arrested people were considered as close allies of the president and at times members of his own ruling Ivorian Patriotic front (FPI).
The exact amounts embezzled or misappropriated, are not known yet, but they are accounted in hundreds of billions of FCFA (millions of US dollars).
In this list, one case stands as an outstanding one, the "Fulton affair", in which the managers of the Coffee-Cocoa Regulatory Fund are allegedly reported to have embezzled more than 100 billion FCFA (or more than $238.5 million) which was to be used to buy a chocolate factory in the United States, to bring some added value to a vital sector for the nation's economy.
Almost a year ago, the Ivorian media reported the "Fulton" story and a couple of Ivorian journalists were taken to court, accused of publishing false reports.
In fact, before he resolved to take the matter seriously and act accordingly, the media have been reporting over and over again the scandalous manner in which the country's cocoa money was misappropriated by those in charge of developing and managing this crop which is the pillar upon which the country's economy is built.
For now, the president seems confident, particularly as he is now applauded by the international community for his anti-corruption efforts.
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