Diversion of the last public at the town hall of Ouidah: Four officers in custody

Another financial scandal in Benin. This time it is the turn of the town hall of Ouidah which makes a sensational entry into the now very open elite of public services pinned down by the phenomenon of embezzlement..

Indeed, it is a case relating to a loss of receipter valued at a significant sum. And for the time being, pending the end of the investigations,  they are four agents (Cyrille Gbayi, Cesar Adounvo, Bernardin Agbé and Bouraima Djibril) working at the town hall of the historic city who are cited in this nebulous affair. Kept at the Economic and Financial Brigade since Friday 10 September 2021, the defendants will be presented, According to The Potential,  this Thursday 16 September to the Ouidah Public Prosecutor's Office for the continuation of the legal proceedings. Several other heads could, according to the same source, also fall in case, they would have their hands in this dirty business. It should be noted that the file was immediately entrusted to justice, because the interested parties would not have been convincing about the circumstances of the loss of the document.

As a reminder

In one of our publications, your newspaper Gaskiyani has already looked into the problem of corruption which remains and remains a gaping wound. Because every day, corruption seems to have returned at a gallop in Benin. This despite all the measures put in place by the Rupture government to stem this scourge.

Hillacondji (southern border between Benin and Togo), the 20 August 2021 : the head of the customs brigade, his receiver, an inspector and a freight forwarder are arrested for fraud involving 400 million CFA francs.

23 August at the Benin Broadcasting and Television Office (Ortb) : four agents stationed in Parakou and Cotonou were arrested and placed in custody at the Economic and Financial Brigade for abuse of office and embezzlement of public funds. They are prosecuted in a case of 200 million CFA francs.

National Land Transport Agency (ANaTT) 7 July 2021 : the former managing director, meanwhile promoted to technical adviser for transport ANATT and 8 other agents in police custody in a case of embezzlement of 13 billion

Within two months, these are four major acts of corruption that have been flushed out by the government. And no doubt, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The 22 avril 2021, it is a treasurer of the municipality of Djidja in the department of Zou who disappeared with a sum of 73 million CFA francs. Last year, public opinion was relieved by the extradition from Senegal, in September by Carlos Adohouannon, manager at the Directorate General of Taxes who was suspected of being at the center of the disappearance of a sum of 4 billions of francs, disappearance whose scenario is being reconstituted by the Court of Repression of Economic Offenses, cybercrime and terrorism (I shout). It should also be specified that in June 2020 an agricultural engineer in service at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock received 10 years in prison for embezzling, selling, on behalf of the State of the rice given by Japan without having paid a penny into the treasury coffers. Proceeds from the sale were estimated at 11 millions 340 thousand francs.

This indicates that the end of this scourge is not for tomorrow.

Yvon ALITONON