Since last month, the report of the Court of Auditors on COVID-19 funds in Togo has been unveiled on the institution’s website and has been the subject of comments on social media, especially since it reveals irregularities in the management.
Although in the final conclusions, the Court of Auditors and its teams globally gave “reasonable assurance” that the resources of the funds were used “in accordance with the clauses of the grant and loan agreements on the one hand, and in compliance with the texts in force and those taken in the context of a health emergency”, they nevertheless point out several irregularities.
These insufficiencies were brought together in around twenty observations. The Court indicated that financial transactions were carried out in violation of the required payment methods, “remuneration without any legal basis paid to committee members and to certain so-called support.»
The Court also notes that there was execution of expenditure in non-compliance with the rules of procedure for control and justification in matters of public expenditure, or that certain payments made on the merits related to non-priority expenditure or not having direct links with the implementation of response measures against Covid 19.
For example, hotels and inns requisitioned by other local authorities in place of the Ministry of Tourism, sometimes orally, transfers made to personal bank accounts, either of hotel promoters who are members of the local response management committee, or on the account of hotel managers or on bank accounts of a commercial structure having no connection with the hotel.
At the Ministry of Commerce, 31.5 tons of rice were ordered for more than 8.5 billion CFA francs without an explicit order. Nor is there any document justifying the State’s involvement in the rice procurement process.
Same at the Ministry of Agriculture, fertilizer orders established by mutual agreement worth 4.5 billion FCFA without competition as provided for by law.
Here is the full report in French: