The Minister of Economy and Finance of Guinea-Bissau will be heard at the Attorney General’s Office on Monday December 6 to clarify the payment of around 10 million dollars (9.1 million euros) to 11 businessmen, according to judicial sources.
According to the same sources, Suleimane Seidi should be heard “along with other officials” from the Ministry of Finance and a commercial bank in Bissau.
The bank was the one who granted credit of six billion CFA francs (around 10 million dollars) to the Government to pay the debt to 11 businessmen.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office wants to clarify this entire operation,” said a judicial source who promised to provide more details after the hearing.
For now, the source clarified that the Minister of Finance and those responsible for his ministry will be heard as suspects.
Friday, November 24, the directors-general of the Treasury and Public Debt were heard at the Public Ministry by a Commission created by the Attorney General of the Republic, Bacari Biai, to investigate the allegations made by deputies in Parliament, in how those payments to businesspeople were covered in alleged illegalities.
The Minister of Finance, Suleimane Seidi, was heard in Parliament last Monday, the 27th, where he confirmed that he had requested a loan of six billion CFA francs from a commercial bank to pay the debt owed to businesspeople.
S. Seidi said it is a legal process and that all Governments in Guinea-Bissau do it.
The Movement for Democratic Alternation (Madem-G15), the main opposition party, considers the minister’s explanations to be an admission of a criminal act, namely malfeasance and disrespect for budgetary rules, and he should therefore leave his position in the Government.