Police report vindicates Mendo Ze of embezzlement charges

A Police report has vindicated erstwhile manager of CRTV, Gervais Mendo Ze and co-accused, Akono Ze Jean Marie, of charges of embezzlement from their management of the state’s media corporation dues.

A report of an investigation carried out by the Judicial Police says both Mendo Ze and Jean Marie had no possibility of stealing the funds attributed to them.

Jean Marie was the chief of service of administration at CRTV during the ‘reign’ of Mendo Ze. The two were accused of embezzling FCFA 15,265,938, 801 counting for CRTV audiovisual dues. The embezzlement accusations came after an audit of CRTV audiovisual dues in 2004.

After the audit, Mendo Ze was unable to account for the said amount. For that reason, he was arrested and is in pre-trial custody in Kondengui Central Prison in Yaounde.

A report by the local Yaounde-based French language daily Mutations newspaper said, the Judicial Police report, first published on June 25, 2015, blames the Treasury and Taxation departments for 'swelling' the figures.

Officials of the two departments, the report said, had the responsibility to collect the audiovisual dues directly from the salaries and wages of public servants and the money saved in the public treasury, not with Mendo Ze.

The Cameroon Journal was informed that judicial police officers investigating the case came up with the synthesis of the collection, centralizing and saving of the dues.

The dues are collected by the Taxation Department and handed to the Treasury. The report showed that after one month of close follow-up of the process, there was a discrepancy indicating an increase in the money furnished by the centralizing accountant and those of the treasury payments.

Reports revealed that a financial expert, Georges Delon Dissak, said during judicial interrogation on the case in December 2014 that CRTV has neither the means to control the exact amount of money collected for the dues nor the amount that is withdrawn from the State treasury.

Furthermore, the money collected and transferred to CRTV account is put at the disposal of its officials to withdraw under the control of the Yaounde General Treasury. The Treasury Department, therefore, informs CRTV of the balance in the account and gives authorization on withdrawals and the amounts.