DRC’s Francophone Games Under Audit for Overspending

The auditors from the International Organisation of La Francophonie (IOF), the French-speaking equivalent of the Commonwealth, are in the central African nation for five days after landing Sunday for a mission planned before controversy over overspending erupted.

Between 28 July and 6 August, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hosted the Francophone Games in Kinshasa for the first time.

The international event in the impoverished central African country was considered mostly a success.

But DRC’s finance minister Nicolas Kazadi on Saturday pointed to huge budget overruns, blaming the organisers for poor planning as well as changing the budget without approval.

“The people tasked to doing the work with us were not efficient,” Kazadi said, “and, with delays, they forced us to double and triple budgets to complete the work on time. From 12 million for operations, we arrived at 78 million USD. From 36 million for investments, we arrived at 246 million USD. It’s not normal for the Operation part to swell to this point.”

The Games were originally meant to cost $48 million, Kazadi said, but ended up running to $324 million.

Isidore Kwandja, the director of the Games’ organising committee, responded on social media that funds had been managed carefully and that the committee was “surprised” by the figure of $324 million.

The IOF had approved an operating budget of 66.9 million euros ($70.7 million), he said.

“My management was very transparent,” Kwanjda told RFI’s correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa.

“I was appointed on 22 October 2021. I did not find any money in the accounts. There was never any misappropriation. The management was transparent, regularly monitored by the General Inspectorate of Finance.”

Source: RFI