Kinshasa, May 21st, 2025 (CPA) – The matter was referred to the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday by the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, with a view to obtaining authorization to investigate Constant Mutamba, Minister of State for Justice, for alleged embezzlement, a parliamentary source told us. ‘Constant Mutamba Tungunga, currently Minister of State, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals’, announced Vital Kamerhe, President of the National Assembly, during a plenary session.
The request to prosecute Constant Mutamba, the Minister of State, was made on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds allocated for the construction of the Kisangani prison, according to correspondence from the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation read out at the National Assembly. ‘For this reason, the Bureau of the National Assembly is asked to authorize the prosecution of the Minister of State, who has been pre-qualified for misappropriation of public funds, to allow him to give his version of the facts and enlighten our religion’, read Jacques Ndjoli, the National Assembly’s rapporteur, to the National Assembly’s deputies. In this letter, the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation pointed out to the elected representatives of the people the absence of a no-objection notice in this public contract estimated at 19 million dollars. ‘This request is motivated by the absence of a no-objection notice prior to payment under a public procurement contract worth USD 19 million, which was paid to Zion Construction without such a notice’, according to the Attorney General’s letter read out by the National Assembly’s rapporteur. The letter also states that the funds used came from the compensation fund for victims of the six-day war in Kisangani (in the north-east of the country), which should normally have been managed by another public body called ‘Compensation fund for victims of Uganda’s illegal activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo’ (Frivao).
In his correspondence, the public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation also revealed a number of shortcomings in the management of Zion Construction Sarl, which, according to him, has no administrative staff and was only set up in March of this year with capital of USD 5,000. After reading the prosecutor’s request, the President of the National Assembly set up an ad hoc committee made up of the leaders of all the parliamentary groups to continue the proceedings.