allAfrica.com: Cameroon: Forjindam Accused of Embezzling FCFA 970 Million (Page 1 of 1)

Former General Manager of the Cameroon Shipyard and Industrial Engineering Ltd, CNIC, Zachaeus Forjindam, who was arrested and detained by the Judicial Police in Douala on May 7, was in the evening of May 8 moved to the section for high profile detainees at the Douala New Prison.

Before then, Forjindam and the Director of Administration and Human Resources, Madam Rose Njoh, who was arrested alongside with him, were in the afternoon of May 8 taken to the State Counsel by the Littoral Provincial Chief of Judicial Police, Vincent Ngah Minkoa. Forjindam was accompanied by his lawyers, among who is Atangana Ayissi.

The Post learnt from the encounter at the office of the State Counsel that Forjindam is being accused of having embezzled FCFA 970 million with the complicity of the Director of Administration and Human Resources.

The accusation is animating a lot of debate in Douala. Judging the way Forjindam's arrest was dramatised, some people were given the impression that he was being accused of having embezzled over FCFA 100 billion at CNIC where he had been General Manager for 20 years.

The accusation against Forjindam has thus intensified the debate as to if it is not true that he is a victim of an orchestrated mafia to mess him up, in order for a Beti, Antoine Alo'o Bikoro, to take over the post of General Manager of CNIC, which has grown from scratch to become a giant industrial complex.

The Post learn that the accusation of the embezzlement of FCFA 970 million is from the report of the controversial audit which was carried out by a private firm, CAC, on the instruction of the National Hydrocarbon Corporation, SNH, which is the majority shareholder of CNIC.

The audit was reportedly concluded when Forjindam was on an official mission to the United States, without crosschecking what were considered as irregularities, with the General Manager.

Also, by the time the audit was carried out, the official external auditor of CNIC, Charles Kooh, was in detention in Yaounde linked to 'Operation Sparrow Hawk' that struck the National Housing Corporation, SIC, where he had also been an external auditor.

But interesting enough, upon his release and retun to Douala, Kooh reportedly validated the audit report carried out by CAC. The Post learned the same Kooh had in the past audited the same company during the period under review, without identifying the so-called cases of fraud.

Presidency Rejects Audit Report

Upon his return to the country, Forjindam had strongly objected to the irregular method in which the audit was conducted, for, according to him, it was done in gross violation of required norms, as he was not given the chance to provide justifications for what he was being accused of.

Following the protest he filed to the Presidency against the unfair manner in which the audit ordered by SNH was conducted, the Presidency sent a team from the Higher State Control, to carry out an elaborate and intensive audit of CNIC. The team worked from September 2006 to September 2007. This was proof that the Presidency had rejected the controversial audit.

What is also very controversial in this whole thing is that in spite of the audit carried out by the Higher State Control, the auditor of CNIC, Charles Kooh, on the instruction of the SNH still went ahead and deposited a copy of the controversial audit report with the Judicial Police in Douala headed by Minkoa. A copy was sent to the Vice Prime Minister in charge Justice.

In another controversy, the judicial police summoned Forjindam for interrogation on the basis of the controversial audit report on December 28, 2007, February 1, 2008, and February 18, 2008. Yet, the Higher State Control is known to be the highest audit organ for state companies and institutions and its report is given precedence to any other report.

Laurent Esso Orders March 18th Arrest

Meanwhile, The Post has garnered that Forjindam would have been arrested since March, if not for the hesitation of the Vice Prime Minister in charge of Justice, Amadou Ali. The Secretary General at the Presidency, Laurent Esso, had become part of the SNH or Beti campaign to kick out Forjindam from the post of General Manager of CNIC, and mess him up.

Esso, thus, shelved the audit report of the Higher State Control, which did not find any serious incriminating evidences of corruption against Forjindam, and instead wrote to the Justice Minister on March 18, demanding that Forjindam be arrested for embezzlement of public funds on the basis of the audit report, which was conducted on the orders of SNH.

Esso's authority allegedly lied in the fact that President Biya had, a few months ago, withdrawn the files on 'Operation Spiral Hawk' from the Minister of Justice, and handed it to the Secretary General at the Presidency, who now supervises the operation being executed by the Justice Minister.

But even then, the Justice Minister was reportedly reluctant to order for the arrest of Forjindam because he had received a copy of the audit report which was carried out by the Higher State Control, and in which he did not find any serious thing that incriminated the CNIC Boss.

The minister also knew that an audit report of the Higher State Control, takes precedence over all others, not to talk of one conducted by a private firm in a state owned company.

However, The Post learnt that following pressure from SNH, which even recruited reinforcements from some circles in Yaounde, Amadou Ali finally had to order the arrest of Forjindam.

But just what the Justice Minister was trying to avoid, is what the lawyers of Forjindam are already bracing up to do when the case comes up in court on a date yet to be announced.

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