Burundi: President Evariste Ndayishimiye installed in an armchair he does not deserve (fifth part)
Balance sheet: Fight against corruption and economic malpractices
It is difficult to make a clear and objective evaluation on the fight against corruption and economic malpractice during the reign of President Evariste Ndayishimiye, because, for the not notified, it is the most holy man, the most correct, the least corrupt if we stick only to his speeches in public. If he was able to join the acts to his words, Burundi would be paradise. Yet it’s just the opposite.
His departure in this area was very bad: fragrant violation of the Constitution. The latter provides that the state authorities, at their entry into office, declare their property first; One way to want to evaluate, at the end of their mandate or when they leave their positions, if what they received during this period, they received them legalized because they must again declare them. It is that President Evariste Ndayishimiye announced himself at the first prayer crusade in Ngozi. It was as an order to give all the leaders at all levels committed by the State to prepare to declare their property before their entry into office. Probably that the big fish of the CNDDFDD, who had time to fill their pockets, told him no. And without shame, he made a turn to 180 degrees by declaring at his first public conference, that it is difficult to declare any of someone’s property, that it would take a long time, and that they also constitute a secret to him. It was his first failure to fight corruption and economic malpractices. The leaders of the CNDDFDD closest to the President have riches that they do not even control; and they do good and bad weather in Burundi. Evariste Ndayishimiye is unable to prevent them from continuing to suck the country that the country has, even less to hand over what they stole from the state. He confirmed it during his media exit in the emission ” Ku Nama ”. When Journalist Jérôme Niyonzima asked him whether those who stole the state’s property could be pursued to give the public treasury what they received illegally, he declared that the cases of corrupts and economic malfeasances committed before his entry into office does not concern him, that he will not do anything about these files.
Another failure of the most fragrant Ndayishimiye power in the fight against corruption and economic malpractices, it is the law on the abolition of anti-corruption institutions (the special brigade, the anti-corruption special court) adopted unanimously by the National Assembly of Burundi on 29 April 2021. For the power of Gitega, the objective would be to “decentralize anti-corruption judicial institutions with the population.” In particular, it provides for the creation of anti-corruption chambers in high courts, responsible for treating all corruption records. The creation of anti-corruption sections in parquet floors, responsible for receiving complaints about corruption. For OLUCOME (Observatory to fight corruption and economic malpractice), this bill is a flagrant violation of the Constitution, which advocates respect for international conventions that Burundi has ratified. Gabriel Rufyiri, President of Olucome, talks about the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the African Convention for the Prevention and Fight Against Corruption, ratified by the Burundian Government in January 2005. According to him, the power of Gitega has just made considerable regression on good governance, transparency and fight against corruption; especially since even the Ministry of Good Governance, which was in charge of these anti-corruption institutions has been removed.
When power violates the fundamental texts in the fight against corruption and economic malpractice, it is normal for the acts posed by each other are only direct consequences. We do not pretend here to quote them all. But the following facts and gestures show that Burundi is ganged by corruption and economic malpractices; and the most unfortunate is that it is the big fish of the CNDDFDD, the untouchables, who are the first leaders of big files. Joseph Ntakarutimana, Assistant Secretary of the CNDDFDD, acknowledged that corruption and economic malpractices have become as a cancer that gnaws through the country, in all areas. It was in Butihinda in Muyinga province on May 22, 2021 when launching the campaign against this scourge; a campaign that will lead these CNDFDD leaders in all the provinces of the country. Unfortunately, no one does not know that all this will only be at the level of speeches; and thieves will continue to fill their pockets. They find themselves in various files and for big amounts of money.
In particular, the case of trafficking in human beings is made in fragrant violation of international laws in the subject; aircraft that have always been purchased and have never worked; Government contracts that are awarded without respecting the law in the matter only influential members of the CNDFDD because they pay money to the party; the minerals that are extracted in disorder after paid money to the great of the regime (the most popular today is Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca who would require money for all 7 companies that would be extracting minerals in Ruyigi Province); the extraction of the rare earth that does not benefit the state, but to individuals; the cases of the frauds of the loincloths from the DRC that the government tries to combat, but which do not stop because the leadership are influential men and women within the CNDDFDD system; etc … the list is very long.
URN Hitamwoneza believes that statements of good intentions in the fight against corruption and economic malpractice by President Evariste Ndayishimiye are worthless at the moment when acts of this kind continue to be observed while no one is continuing. Yes, we find that some people accused of economic malpractices are sometimes arrested here and there, too, the finding is that most of those who are arrested and punished are individuals who are no longer in good terms with the great CNDFDD system. As long as the big fishes on power that had all the time stealing the goods that should raise the level of the population and who have become richer than the state are in power, they will continue to put in their pockets the few resources of the state and the citizen Lambda will continue to sink into his misery. We remember once again to the Burundian people that the only way to recover everything that has been stolen from the people by the leaders of the CNDDFDD in power since 2005, it is first of all to drive them out of this power and thus translate them before the competent jurisdictions to respond from their actions. Let’s go together as a single man to free our country.