(Business in Cameroon) - On January 13, 2015, the Special Crime’s Court, created in Cameroon to judge public fund embezzlers, sentenced former Finance Minister, Polycarpe Abah Abah to 25 years in prison. The latter was found guilty of embezzling 6 billion FCFA while he was Director of Taxes at the Ministry of Finance between 1998 and 2004.

In addition to this heavy sentence, the TCS ordered the confiscation of Mr. Abah Abah’s assets, including some thirty residences across the country, eight vehicles, three tractors and financial assets in banks, estimated at 26 million FCFA.

According to the TCS, in keeping with a mechanism in effect in the country, Mr. Abah Abah, as Tax Director at that time, collected fees for Crédit foncier du Cameroun (CFC) that were not paid over to the Housing Bank. The former Tax Director, who later became Finance Minister, has consistently denied these allegations, insisting that the money collected in fees for the CFC was paid over.

In 2006, Cameroon’s Head of State, launched “operation hawk”, a clean-up operation intended to track public fund corruption. Since then, some forty former ministers and and State company general managers were slapped with heavy prison sentences for embezzling public funds.