Operation Sparrow-hawk:

 Libom Li Likeng quizzed at Special Criminal Court

She was summoned to answer questions linked to the embezzlement of public funds while she managed the “Nexus Project” in her capacity as director general of customs.

By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde

Minette Libom Li Likeng

Minette Libom Li Likeng has severally been acclaimed for her efficiency at the helm of the directorate of customs for the number of years that she was there. However, this did not stop the legal department of the special criminal tribunal (SCT) from grilling her in connection to allegations of embezzlement of public funds. She was served a summons signed by senior superintendent of police, Enyegue Mbolong, on 10 May 2016, and heard on 26 May.

                The Median has learned reliably that the suspected case of embezzlement of public funds has to do with the “Nexus Project” managed by the directorate general of customs which was launched on 4 August 2009. This means that Libom Li Likeng’s grilling had nothing to do with her current function of minister of Post and Telecommunication.

                The summons, a copy of which The Median stumbled on, reads in part:

“I have the honour to invite you to appear before us, on Tuesday 24 May 2016 at 10 o’clock prompt, with the aim of getting your observations following declarations of the representative of the Ministry of Finance.” (Our translation).

                What this newspaper does not understand in the summons is who “the representative of the Ministry of Finance” stands for. Is it the head of the legal department of the ministry? Is it a representative of this department? Did this department mention in the internal investigation it had earlier done severally on the issue, that the former director general of customs’ management of the “Nexus Project” was unorthodox, and transmitted this conclusion to the SCT?

                Sources at the ministry of Finances told this newspaper that it was in 2014 that an enquiry was opened in this ministry against the former director of customs. The matter was then handed to the legal department of the SCT for Minette Likeng to shed light on allegations of embezzlement of public funds. These allegations, we were informed, were contained in an anonymous letter sent to the minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey.

                The quizzing of 24 May, we were further told, was carried out by the head of the investigation department of the SCT in an office situated on the first floor of the ministry of Justice. Precisely, the SCT wanted to have, amongst other things, the former DG of customs’ response to the questions raised in the anonymous letter cited above. The questions include the following: do the costs incurred by the functioning of the “Nexus Project” registered in the ministry of Finance (MINFI)? Why are the accounts of the project lodged in a commercial bank? Is the minister of Finance aware of these accounts?

Other questions which Libom Li Likeng must have thrown light on are: what authorizes the DG of customs to institute compensation for Nexus whereas it is a supplementary service rendered by the customs department to transit operators of neighbouring countries and to their local representatives? Are the charges collected by local customs officials while their agents work out of their habitual workplaces or beyond official working hours, and which are handed monthly to the DG of customs to distribute to customs officers on the basis of a supplementary salary, public funds?

                If Minette Libom Li Likeng’s answers to these questions are not satisfactory, then the fate of many former ministers and directors of state corporations who are today languishing in prison may be hers as well.