(Business in Cameroon) - Eight employees of the general tax directorate who were on duty in the regional tax sub directorate of Ngaoundéré, in the northern part of Cameroon, are currently detained at the Kondengui central prison, in Yaoundé, the Capital.

They are being prosecuted before the special criminal court (Tribunal criminel spécial-TCS) with five of their colleagues still at large. The TCS is an extraordinary court set up to hunt corrupt public officials.

These officials are being prosecuted for the embezzlement of an estimated CFA200 million. This is after being suspended by the minister of finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, following an investigation by the tax sub directorate.

The diversions were perpetrated by means of non-payment of revenue-stamps, credible sources revealed. According to the control mission which discovered the fraud, they happened between January 2015 and July 2016.

It should also be recalled that the ministry of finance, signed on July 2017, orders punishing four dishonest officials, on duty at the tax directorate and at the general treasury, for their alleged involvement in the diversion of CFA1.3 billion by means of deliberated increase of about 600 public agents’ wage. 

Brice R. Mbodiam