DR Congo’s leading anti-corruption coalition Le Congo n’est pas à Vendre (Congo is Not for Sale or CNPAV) has challenged the electoral commission, CENI to uphold transparency in the management of funds channeled to the organization of the forthcoming December 2023 elections.
In a press statement released on Monday, the CNPAV urged CENI and government to give an account of the management of resources allocated to the elections.
The CNPAV raised concerns over the lack of clarity on the funds and other financial operations related to the ongoing electoral process.
This concern comes in light of CENI’s lack of declaration or development of an overall budget for the elections, contenting itself with the annual budgets provided for in the 2022 and 2023 finance laws.
The CNPAV stressed that the lack of an overall vision of how finances would be managed by CENI complicates that citizens’ monitoring of the electoral process.
CNPAV noted that despite CENI had publishing a financial report for the year 2022, details particularly relating to the accounting and financial inventory, the cash situation and the balance of the funds or bank on January 1, 2023 had not been issued in the report.
As a remedy to this situation, the CNPAV now urges CENI to develop an overall budget for the electoral process as well publication of detailed reports on the financial operations carried out by the commission since 2022.
This show of transparency would pave way for a better understanding of the electoral operations by citizens, in Parliament and at the Court of Auditors as well as to reduce tensions between the CENI and the Ministry of Finance.
Finally, the CNPAV also calls on CENI to greatly respect the public procurement procedure in order to avoid any errors as in the past and further stressed that respect for the law is essential in promoting transparency, accountability and good governance in the electoral process.
