The Sparrow hawk operation. The case of the "State of Cameroon against Antagana Mebara Jean-Marie, Otele Essomba Hubert Marie Patrick and other person " is a long-term trial. This case, among the others, condemned Yves-Michel Fotso, a businessman and former administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the national airline company Cameroon Airlines (CamAir ) to detention.
class="chapoarticle">The Sparrow hawk operation. The case of the "State of Cameroon against Antagana Mebara Jean-Marie, Otele Essomba Hubert Marie Patrick and other person " is a long-term trial. This case, among the others, condemned Yves-Michel Fotso, a businessman and former administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the national airline company Cameroon Airlines (CamAir ) to detention.
Yves Michel Fotso was the administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the national airline company.
The Boeing Business jet has been selected.
On Tuesday, January 25th, 2011, the courthouse in Yaounde (Cameroon) had been assaulted by the population. For a very good reason, this day, the Court had to audition two prosecution witnesses. The defendants, Jean-Marie Antagana Mebara, the former Minister of State of the Cameroonian Republic, and Otele Essomba Hubert, the administrator of companies under heavy suspicion of "an attempt of misappropriation of public funds for an amount of 4 billion FCFA ", had arrived at the courthouse.
Their opponents were conspicuously absent forcing the Courthouse to postpone the next audience of what the public opinion baptized "the Albatros scandal" to February 10th, 2011 ". But what are the outlines of this crisis which keeps fascinating Cameroon, above and beyond?
General outline
In 2001, the government of Cameroon decided to acquire a new plane for the President's business trips. The "Pelican ", the Boeing 727-200 purchased by the State in 1978 was in charge of it but appeared to be outdated. It was decided to replace it by a much more modern aircraft which would present much better guarantees of safety, reliability, speed and comfort. The President's private staff was in charge of implementing the necessary studies for that purpose. So, at the end, they opted for a Boeing Business jet ( BBJ ) at the expense of an Airbus Corporate Jet. It cost 45 million dollars, that is to say 34 875 million FCFA.
However, ordering the command of this new aircraft was against a firm and categorical refusal from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which considered that this investment was inappropriate in the context of the process of Cameroon's debt relief within the framework of the initiative PPTE. To remove this obstacle, it was decided, following the advice of Yves Michel Fotso – who was at that time the administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the national airline company Cameroon Airlines (CamAir ), " to acquire the plane temporarily in the name of CamAir, as its subsequent registration in the name of the State of Cameroon should raise no difficulties". So, in order to raise no suspicion on Cameroon's involvement in the PPTE's implementation, "no one should betray that the plane was acquired by the State directly ". Henceforth, the name of CamAir was only used in this regard.
How was operated the financing of the acquisition of the new presidential plane?
The financial plan should at no means reveal that the State was the real purchaser of the new aircraft, and the principle of a screen behind CamAir validated, the idea of the acquisition "by" leasing "through an intermediary called GIA International Inc. Corporation was suggested. It lasted a long time. A firm opposition of the members of the team working on the operation at the level of the presidency of the Cameroonian Republic was definitively supposed to have pushed aside this formula of purchase. It is unthinkable that the plane of the Head of State of Cameroon is subjected to the hazards of this kind of contracts and also towards responsibilities ensuing from the intervention of an intermediary ", the majority of the members of this team had agreed....
And in the meantime, the Minister of State, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, then General Secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, told Meva' has M' Eboutou Michel – who was at that time the Minister of Finance and the Budget, " to pay to Boeing an advance of 31 million dollars (that is to say 24 025 000 000 FCFA for the price of the BBJ-2 ".
The Bank of America was the first one to react by notifying its surprise to banks having executed transfers in favor of its customer GIA International Inc. Corporation, highlighting that these transfers of fund were unusual.
On August 21st, 2001, the Minister in charge of the presidency of the Republic's information sent an email to ask the administrator of the Chief Executive Officer of the national Company of hydrocarbons (SNH), Moudiki Elame Adolphe Moïse, " to advance to the Treasury 31 million dollars for the order of a Boeing 737 BBJ-2. This sum will be paid according to the following conditions: a) the CBC, Commercial Bank of Cameroon received 1 billion five hundred and fifty million CFA francs to cover the advance made for the State with the aim of the payment of the "margin" required with order from the device; b) the GIA International Inc. Corporation received 29 million dollars (account N 28 794 10 492, ABA N 323 070 380, Bank Of America MT-SA 222 W Main Street Medford Oregon 97501 USA) for payment to the manufacturer Boeing ... "
And the Minister of Finance and the Budget underscored in its mail: "I have to underline that the requested payments must be done before August 24th, 2001 at the risk of losing the 2 million dollar margin already established. The total advance, granted on the Treasury, can be reduced into ten monthly instalments starting on September 1st, 2001 ... "These instructions will be implemented by transfer in favor of GIA International Inc. Corporation on August 22nd, 2001 and by order for the benefit of the CBC on August 27th, 2001.
Did the banking institutions from which the SNH operated the transfers of fund react in consideration to the sums at stakes?
The Cameroonian public enterprise, to satisfy the request of the government, on one hand, had made enliven its current account in the financial books of SCB Crédit Lyonnais in Yaounde for the payment of the CBC, and on the other hand its accounts in banking institutions based in France. Bank of America will be the first one to react by notifying its surprise to banks having executed transfers in favor of its customer GIA International Inc. Corporation, qualifying these fund transfers of unusual, so much by their amount than with regard to the business sector of GIA International Inc. Corporation. The anxieties of the American bank will be echoed in the SNH by its bankers based in France, who asked them to communicate them the invoices proving the economic legitimacy of this operation, in this particular case, the purchase contract of the plane and its invoice.
Neither the Ministry of Finance and the budget, nor the general management of the national airline company CamAir, on the initiative of the operation, would ever provide any required documents to the SNH and its bankers. At the most, the references of GIA International Inc. Corporation in the State of Oregon and New York by Minister Meva' has M' Eboutou Michel.will be forwarded to the head office of the public company the references of GIA International Inc. Corporation in the State of Oregon and New York by Minister Meva' has M' Eboutou Michel. As for him, Yves Michel Fotso prefered to keep a set of documents, not the ones required by the bankers, but the others which gave evidence of the fact that he was one of the persons in charge of GIA International Inc. Corporation to access the account, and a letter of intent signed between Boeing and GIA International Inc. Corporation, dated August 30th, 2001, which accompanied a bank statement of this company.
Was the Cameroonian State able to enter in possession of the new ordered plane?
The operation of purchase of a new presidential aircraft launched in 2001 by the government of Cameroon has not encountered any outcome as the moment when the trial takes place. Invited in the United States to take up the plane in the last week of March, 2002, President Paul Biya's private staff came back a few days later totally empty-handed. The reason of this disappointment remains unknown up to now. We only know, based on a document signed on August 14th, 2001 by the Chief Executive Officer of the CamAir Yves - Michel Fotso on one hand, and on the other hand by the "senior Vice- President and Project Manager of GIA International Inc. Corporation, Fernando Gomez-Mazuera, that instead of the firm and direct purchase by Cameroon Airlines of the plane BBJ-2 ordered by the government, it is rather in the form of a leasing contract of plane between CamAir and GIA International Inc. Corporation, which is to be an owner of the aircraft - that this operation was implemented.
In spite of this rather surprising outcome of the first part of the operation, the Cameroonian government had to pay 5 million additional dollars directly to Boeing " to consolidate the 31 million dollar deposit already acquired, almost one year after the unexplained missed delivery which occurred in May, 2003. Other payments were made- always in rather shady conditions which did not fulfill their first objectives- not without mentioning the changes in the addressees and\or the accounts 'names.
For instance, the 5 million dollars intended to consolidate the previously paid deposit would in reality be used to pay the rents and other expenses from the leasing by CamAir of an old aircraft named "Albatross".
By Louis S . Amédé in Abidjan