Libreville, GABON – November 24, 2021. The BGFIBank Group condemns in the strongest terms, acts contrary to the law and to ethics which could have been committed in the past within its subsidiary BGFIBank RDC SA, and of which its agents could possibly have been perpetrators or accomplices to varying degrees.
Since 2018, the Bank has taken measures to strengthen governance and the necessary control mechanisms, in particular through:
– Restructuring of its share capital;
– Strengthening its governance, both at the level of the Board of Directors and
of the General Management;
– Carrying out an internal audit in order to identify circumvention methods
that may have been used to violate the Bank’s control procedures;
– Strengthening of internal control systems as well as measures of
remediation in order to comply with the banking regulations applicable in the DRC;
– The implementation of new management procedures guaranteeing greater
transparency of its operations;
– Obtaining AML 30000® Certification relating to the fight against money laundering
capital and the fight against terrorism;
– The appointment of new leaders with proven profiles;
– The filing of a complaint with the constitution of civil party before the General Prosecutor’s Office
so that responsibilities are established and their perpetrators are punished
for the alleged facts;
– Full cooperation with the state authorities in charge of the file (Ministry
of Finances, General Prosecutor’s Office, General Inspectorate of Finances, Central Bank of Congo…).
For several days, a group of NGOs and Western media have made public the conclusions of their investigation into documents allegedly leaked from BGFIBank RDC SA, and which implicate the latter in alleged acts of embezzlement of public funds.
Contacted before the dissemination of these allegations, the BGFIBank Group, while denouncing the methods of obtaining these documents and questioning their authenticity, resolved not to respond to them, nor to comment on them, in order to observe the duty of reserve. imposed by ongoing judicial inquiries.
Without prejudice to the rights of journalists, the BGFIBank Group nevertheless affirms that in the Democratic Republic of Congo as elsewhere, the judicial authorities remain the only ones empowered to establish, in compliance with the law, the innocence or the guilt of the accused persons. Consequently, all information and allegations other than the truths established by final judicial decisions must be taken with the reservations imposed by the credibility of the process and the objectivity of the facts on the part of their authors.
In this context, the BGFIBank Group, through its subsidiary BGFIBank RDC SA, reserves the right to prosecute any person taking part in the dissemination and reproduction of false information and / or the disclosure of confidential or private information in the media or social networks.
Today, more than ever, the BGFIBank Group continues to nurture its ambitions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ensures that BGFIBank RDC SA is increasingly committed alongside its customers.
