JOIN USDR Congo's deputy health minister has denounced a "mafia network" he says is stealing money meant to fight the coronavirus pandemic, in a letter seen Wednesday by AFP.
The letter from Albert M'Peti Biyombo to Sylvestre Illunga Ilunkamba, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, underscores a rift among the country's ruling coalition because the health minister belongs to a partner party.
"Within the health ministry there are strong mafia networks set up to pilfer these funds," Biyombo wrote in a three-page "memorandum" to Ilunga, both of whom belong to the Common Front for Congo (FCC) of former president Joseph Kabila.
"These mafia networks demand kickbacks of up to 35 percent from beneficiaries of the funds," he added.
The document was certified as authentic by a source close to the prime minister and a parliamentary source, and marked "highly confidential".
It was nonetheless leaked to social media against a background of political crisis within the ruling coalition.
DR Congo Health Minister Eteni Longondo belongs to President Felix Tshisekedi's Union for Democracy and Progress (UDPS).
Biyombo alleged that the health minister signed for "large payments and never includes me in the management of these funds with the exception of small sums".
He claimed that he was mandated to countersign such payments but had already rejected "low priority and complicit financial documents."
On July 3, FCC deputy Francois Nzekuye alerted parliament to "catastrophic financial management within the health ministry" that included payment of large sums that were not subjected to standard fiscal controls.
The health ministry has not replied to requests by AFP for comment on the issue.
In Kinshasa, health officials fighting the Covid-19 epidemic launched Monday a strike to recover three months of salaries they accuse the ministry of failing to pay.
And on June 20, the doctor charged with battling the epidemic, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, said he had received only $1.4 million since the first cases appeared in the country on March 10.
Ilunga told Congolese senators a month earlier that $10.7 million had been spent to stem the spread of the virus.
DR Congo has reported 7,737 cases of Covid-19 and 184 deaths, mostly in Kinshasa.