The Advocate General delivered his intermediary submission last June 19, 2014 in Yaounde in the Crédit Foncier trial.

Former Finance Minister, Polycarpe Abah Abah, will mount the witness box at the Special Criminal Court in Yaounde on July 29, 2014 to rebut charges from the Legal Department that he, in concert with several others, including former General Manager of Credit Foncier du Cameroun (Housing Loan Scheme), Joseph Edou, obtained or fraudulently retained the sum of over FCFA 4.9 billion.

Most of the said sum represented housing tax payments recovered between 1999 and 2004 by the Finance Ministry’s Directorate of Taxes - then under Polycarpe Abah Abah - was not transferred to Credit Foncier du Cameroun (CFC).

In his intermediary submission delivered at the SCC during its setting last June 19, 2014, Advocate General, Mougnutou Arouna, first upheld that the SCC had rightful jurisdiction to hear the case contrary to the defence bench’s allegation that the Examining Magistrate of the Mfoundi High Court on September 9, 2009 had rendered a partial no-case committal order in favour of the accused.

Advocate General Mougnutou Arouna then cited the joint Finance Ministry-Supreme State Audit Office mission to the CFC in 2002 and its 2006 report that indicated misappropriation of State funds as confirmed by a court-ordered expert report of February 2010. The 2006 report by Jean Nzie Nzie established the mode of recovery of housing tax and payment into the Central Treasury by the Directorate of Taxes and the Directorate of Treasury in the Finance Ministry.

Thus, for over FCFA One billion collected between September 21, 2000 and April 15, 2002, Etogo Mbezele of the Treasury Directorate demanded and obtained three per cent (about FCFA 15 million) as recovery fees which was paid into an account opened at CFC without any legal basis. “This constitutes embezzlement of State Funds by Joseph Edou,” he insisted.

He further said that at the Directorate of Taxes, documents were submitted attesting that between 1999 and 2004, the body collected over FCFA 22 billion, but a shortfall of FCFA 4.9 billion was noticed after transfer to CFC.

The difference was attributed to Polycarpe Abah Abah and Manga Pascal while at the level of CFC, the Advocate General held that over FCFA 300 million of the sum transferred to CFC could not be traced in CFC’s account books but evidence showed that the said sum had been cashed by cheques in accounts opened at Union Bank of Cameroon and BICEC’s Kribi branch. Joseph Edou and Mekeu Raphael were held responsible for FCFA 260 million of that misappropriated sum.

Furthermore, the Protocol Agreement of September 15, 2000 that created a CFC account to receive recovery fees of 6 per cent to the Directorate of taxes was illegal as Polycarpe Abah Abah and Joseph Edou had no legal power to sign such an accord. Furthermore, withdrawals from the said account by Mewoulou Oyono Mballa Hélène (FCFA 1.9 billion), Sylvie Evina Chantal (FCFA 155 million), Joseph Tenlep Tenlep (FCFA 47 million) and Eloumba Therese (FCFA 15 million) were never justified as being spent to the State’s benefit.

The panel of judges presided by Mr Justice Yap Abdou and comprising Mr. Justice Francis Moukouri and Mrs Justice Eloundou Virginie, upheld the Legal Department’s argument that there were enough charges against the accused for the latter to prove their innocence.

While praying for an adjournment of the hearing for a better preparation, the defence bench through Barrister Atangana Ayissi hoped that the originals or certified copies of all cheques and evidence cited by the Legal Department were available in the case file.