When the hunter becomes the hunted

Epervier hovers over CONAC headquarters!
By Numh Rogers in Yaounde

Dieudonné Massi Gams, en route
to Kondengui?

According to some press reports, agents of the Supreme State Audit (CONSUPE) are currently investigating the management of CONAC President, Rev. Massi Gam’s and some of his collaborators over allegations of unbridled corruption and undue incentives.
    According to l’anecdote newspaper (no. 670 of Wednesday 2014), the team of auditors from the Supreme State Audit was ordered to look through the records of the National Anti-corruption commission (CONAC) by the highest authority of the state, after mountain-high crimes including gross embezzlement, kick-backs, corruption and award of undue incentives and perks to personnel and partners were suspected at the commission.

    CONAC president, Dieudonné Massi Gams, was not spared the stripping. Far from it! He is believed to be at the centre of a corrupt clique at the commission, which is alleged to have bribed media outlets not to reveal the shady deals at CONAC that might have cost the state up to FCFA 1.5 billion of tax-payers’ money. Media reports said Massi Gams, a veteran pastor and former Executive Secretary of the Eglise Presbyteriene du Cameroun, EPC, is said to use ill-gotten-wealth to maintain a notorious lifestyle driven by an insatiable libido.
Even former Minister of Public Service and now party leader, Garga Haman Adji, a member of CONAC, was also reported to have seriously soiled his hands. The reporter expressed surprise at Garga’s involvement in the alleged fraud, recalling how Garga resigned from government on grounds that his efforts to name and shame corrupt government officials were thwarted by the authorities. Even though, the paper said Garga was “fooled” to resign from government, by SDF chairman Fru Ndi, who promised to make him the Prime Minister if he took power.
    Rev. Massi Gams was said to have inherited a sound institution from his late predecessor and pioneer CONAC president, Paul Tessa. Provided with a blank cheque from the presidency, Paul Tessa recommended a relatively frugal monthly wage of FCFA 1.5m for the president, and 750.000F for other members of the commission. A selfless gentleman, Paul Tessa soaked up pressure from commission members because he wanted CONAC to be a strong institution on which an upright Cameroonian society could be built.
    But Paul Tessa’s successor Rev. Massi Gams is said to see things differently. He is said to have soared his salary from FCFA 1.5m to FCFA 7.5m and those of other board members to FCFA 5m up from FCFA 750.000. The CONAC Boss is reported to have seduced his collaborators with impressive incentives and perks, and has also succeeded to silence the press with mouth-watering kick-backs.