Recalled that on July 19th, BaretaNews reported that 50 billion francs CFA was stolen from the International Bank of Cameroon for Savings and Credit (BICEC). This was made known by an audit report conducted in March 2016 by the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC).
The coming of Alain Ripert, the new CEO of BICEC opened the investigations. The COBAC criminal revelations indicated the participation of two senior executives of the bank namely, Innocent Ondoa Nkou who resigned a few weeks after the discovery and Samuel Ngando Mbongue, the Director of Accounting and Treasury who was fired with four other employees.
Reports from the Cameroons on Monday 8th August now say Innocent Ondoa Nkou, former Deputy General Manager of BICEC bank has been arrested and is in New Bell Prison alongside his collaborators including Samuel Ngando Mbongue, Nyamsi Martin, Ekoko Benoit for allegedly embezzling circa 50 billion FCFA from the bank.
BICEC is a subsidiary of the Groupe des Banques Populaires de France. It has been facing heavy financial difficulties since 2015. We are told the bank recorded a net profit of 4.5billion in 2015, 63 percent down from 14 billion recorded in December 2014.COBAC reveals that the embezzlement was done through over-invoicing and fictitious bills regularly paid to the service providers through unscrupulous methods.
Cameroon is indeed a state of thieves. Everyone steals. How can few officials steal 50 billion CFA?
God is still saying something.
