According to the said press release signed on August 1, 2024 by the Minister of State, Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the deposits and consignments made by the Cdec will continue in accordance with decree n°2011/105 of April 15, 2011. This update of the SGPR is a strict response to the correspondence addressed on July 11, 2024 to the Director General of the Cdec, Richard Evina Obam by Marcel Ondele, Secretary General of the COBAC.
Correspondence in which he invited the managers of the Caisse de dépôts et consignations to suspend the process of transferring unclaimed assets. A letter reported to banking establishments and other actors, most of whom had observed a blockade emphasizing in passing that the operation initiated by the Cdec was similar to an embezzlement of funds (case of the CEO of the CNPS). While the International Monetary Fund had also stepped up to demand clarifications on this operation. Richard Evina Obam had calmed things down, preferring to highlight the interference of the Central African Banking Commission (Cobac) via a letter addressed on July 29, 2024 to the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze.
Invited to take part in a consultation on the options for supervising the activities of the deposit and consignment funds at the level of the CEMAC on the Libreville side in Gabon, nothing had filtered through on a possible trip of the CEO of the CDEC. Faced with these multiple upheavals, the note from the SGPR intended for the “Very High and Complete Information of the Head of State” re-establishes the legal framework for this consignment action. Even if it is underlined in the press release the manifest absence of legal basis for these acts which in fact violate the decision-making procedure provided for at the level of the Cobac, but also the scope of competence of the financial policeman of the sub-region. In the same vein, the text specifies that “deposits and consignments not currently forming part of the materials transferred to the community (Cemac), remain a sovereign activity governed by the relevant provisions of national law in force”, in particular article 55 of law n°2011/105 of April 15, 2011.
Between the illegality of the Cdec’s action in the Cemac zone and legality on Cameroonian soil, the SGPR press release, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh addressed to the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, draws the line to follow. To this end, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, via the Minister of Finance, invites Cobac to report its correspondence of July 11, 2024 relating to the suspension of the process of transferring unclaimed assets; to focus discussions on possible residual banking activities that may be carried out by the deposit and consignment funds, when they have not created subsidiaries.
In response to these requests, the press release acknowledges the collection activity carried out by the Caisse de dépôts et consignations while asking the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, to ensure, with the Cdec, the effective, diligent and serene continuation of the fund transfer process initiated in application of article 55 of decree no. 2011/105 of April 15, 2011, which sets out the organizational and operating procedures of the Caisse de dépôts et consignations (CDEC).
Overall, the structure headed by Richard Evina Obam will therefore continue its recovery activity serenely. Moreover, during the swearing-in of 7 new constraint bearers on July 25, 2024 before the High Court (TGI) of Mfoundi in Yaoundé, Richard Evina Obam had declared to the “recalcitrant” actors that, “forced recovery must be done according to the standards”. He was joined in this momentum by the Prosecutor Pauline Valentine Mireille Nkoumba, who then maintained that, “the reforms undertaken since January 2023 must continue without hindrance”. As a reminder, from January 2023 to June 11, 2024, the Cdec collected 13 billion CFA francs from several banking structures, which is equivalent to 17 months of activities.
