Douala Port Authority GM ‘missing’, embezzlement issues

Emmanuel Etoundi Oyono, General Manager of Douala Ports Authority, PAD, is reported not to have returned to the country until now, since he left Cameroon on an official mission to Amsterdam – Holland on September 21, 2015.

The PAD general manager was part of a government delegation led by Louis Paul Motaze, the then Secretary General at the Prime Minister’s Office, now Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development.

The mission to Amsterdam, sources informed, was to receive a multi-purpose vessel meant for service at the Douala seaport. While other members of the delegation have since returned to the country, Oyono’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Meanwhile, his absence is causing a hold-up at the ports authority as all official documents, be they approvals to authorize certain services to be carried out or for other purposes can no longer be signed. It is for this reason that the rumour mill in that establishment has been running wild.

Against the backdrop of Oyono’s prolonged absence and the inconveniences it is causing the administration of the port, Oyono’s second in command visited Robert Nkili, the then Minister of Transport, presumably to lobby to be appointed interim general manager pending Oyono’s return, The Cameroon Journal gathered.

But before Nkili could take a decision on the said proposal, he was sacked during the October 2 cabinet reshuffle.

Going by some workers of PAD, Oyono had suddenly taken ill on arriving Amsterdam and decided to seek medical attention rather than return since it would have been more expensive to come back and start arrangements to go receive such medical care abroad.

They are alleging that the hierarchy is aware of Oyono’s health situation; and that it is the same authorities who have unofficially permitted him to stay back and receive medical treatment.

However, other workers disclosed to reporters that the absence has nothing to do with health. They suggested his absence is connected to financial impropriety.

They allege that CAMERICRUS Corporation, a company involved in fishing and related activities along Cameroon’s coastal waters sometime in the past took Oyono to court.

The company accused him of violating the terms of the cooperation agreement they signed with the government of Cameroon represented by Oyono and that the general manager embezzled the sum of 45 million FCFA and paid it into his personal account instead of the state treasury.

Oyono had also been accused of diverting the sum of 60 million FCFA into his private account, attributing it to a debt owed to one Mr. Tessa, when he was the manager of the Cameroon Debt Recovery Corporation, SRC.

It emerged that these financial scandals prompted the Special Criminal Court, SCC, to call Oyono more than once to answer charges of embezzlement of public funds. It is for this reason that many people are speculating that Oyono is not sick.

They support this claim by stressing that the GM’s air ticket to the official assignment that took him to Europe indicated that he would take his flight from Douala to Paris; take a connecting flight to Amsterdam and then another one to Dubai. This arrangement was not the same with other members of that entourage whose flight was Douala- Paris- Amsterdam and back.