The case of the management of the Community Agricultural Domains Program (Prodac), examined by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), is among the control files transmitted to the courts as part of the fight against embezzlement of public funds involving officials of the former regime. According to information, the Criminal Investigation Division (DIC) has already taken charge of this case, and hearings are imminent.
This Monday, the newspaper Libération revealed the first compromising elements of this affair. It appears that Prodac broke important rules during the execution of its contract with Green 2000, an Israeli company in charge of the construction of agricultural estates. According to the IGF, even before the formalization of the contract, Prodac would have paid 2.3 billion CFA francs to Green 2000 in three payments. Libération specifies that the Israeli company received an order to start work on March 25, 2016, followed by the first payments on May 30 of the same year.
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To raise the necessary funds, Prodac would have exerted strong pressure on the lessor Locafrique, by sending four payment requests between March and July 2016. However, the contract with Green 2000 was not officially notified until July 25, 2016, i.e. after payments start. The IGF stressed that article 6 of the contract conditions the payment of the start-up advance on the completion of the approval formalities, and article 5.2 of the financing agreement stipulates that the order of start of the works must be notified before any payment.
The IGF described this offense as an “anachronistic discrepancy”. The former Minister of Youth, Mame Mbaye Niang, under whose supervision Prodac was at the time, is mentioned in this affair, although he has always denied the accusations, going so far as to assert that the report in question did not exist. Ousmane Sonko, then in opposition, argued the opposite, asserting that the document was indeed real, which led to his conviction for defamation and his ineligibility during the last presidential election. Sonko, who became Prime Minister, assured that the IGF report had indeed been sent to the courts.
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