Accumulating nearly two months of salary arrears, agents of the Rail Transport Regulatory Authority (ARTF) claim that they are mourning Justin Ndoudangoye, under whose supervision salaries were paid through the VAT account collected on freight merchandise. However, this account is not intended for the payment of wages. Better still, the ARTF contract has been terminated since last August and its restructuring is being considered due to the mismatch between employee profiles and the structure’s missions.
The Ministry of Economy and Recovery explains that the problem of the ARTF is not the lack of resources but the plethora of human resources with more than half not having a matching profile. with the missions of the structure.
For the past two months, officials from the Rail Transport Regulatory Authority (ARTF) have said, salary statements have been sent to the chairman of the Monitoring Committee for him to order the Transgabonais operating company (Setrag) – who manages the account – to pay salaries. But, they say, nothing has been done because the ARTF is awaiting the decision of the chief of staff of the Minister of Economy and Recovery.
However, they assure, a decree provides that the Ministers of the Economy and Transport “delegate the powers to the chairman of the monitoring committee to validate all the expenses made on the VAT freight merchandise account, while ensuring that they are accountable. to the two ministers ”.
At the time of Justin Ndoundangoye, former Executive Secretary of the ARTF and former Minister of Transport, reveal the same agents, a mechanism ensured that the salaries of ARTF agents were paid through this account and, on this basis , an order had been co-signed by ministers Ndoundangoye and Ogandaga. This text would have been replaced by another signed by the current Minister of Transport and that of the Economy delegating some powers to the chairman of the PRN Monitoring Committee.
For further clarification on this multi-family affair, Gabonreview’s editorial staff approached the office of the Minister of the Economy. It was thus explained, on reading article 3 of decree n ° 00012 / MTL / MEPPD of December 17, 2018 fixing the operating methods of the SETRAG VAT account on Freight Goods, that said account is primarily intended for ” financing of the rehabilitation of the 24 unstable areas of the Transgabonais ”.
Clearly, the resources in this account are not intended to pay the salaries of ARTF agents, an independent administrative authority which, enjoying administrative and financial management autonomy, would have its own resources to operate. At the minister’s office where we recall the rigor of management, it is assured that “the use of this resource has served only to honor expenses which were not related to its object to the detriment of the railway” . Management contrary to the requirements of rigorous management of public funds imposed by “the President of the Republic who orders the sanctuary of the rendering of accounts”.
On the new decree signed by ministers Balonzi and Ogandaga, we learn that the 2020 finance law provides for a collection of 30 billion over 4 years of the VAT collected on the freight of Setrag goods. In order to comply with the rules of public accountancy in matters of declaration and payment of VAT, it was therefore necessary to modify the order n ° 00012 / MTL / MEPPD of December 17, 2018. “Due to the mismanagement of these funds , which were used for purposes other than the rehabilitation of unstable areas of the railway, we have noted to deplore the increase in derailments in said areas and the payment of companies that have not carried out the work for which they were remunerated on the subject of this account, ”one explains to the Ministry of the Economy, justifying the new decree with coercive measures adopted.
Likewise, the contracts of those called “fanciful” as a company to rehabilitate the track were terminated. “In reality, they brought no added value and did not provide any service, except to participate in abnormal outflows of funds”, it is argued, informing that this mismanagement has led the ministers of Transport and ‘Economy to abolish certain contracts including that of the ARTF since August 12, 2020.