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FM AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7068
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 1439
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1682
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 YAOUNDE 001883 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/C 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA ACTION OFFICERS 
EUCOM FOR J5-A AFRICA DIVISION AND POLAD YATES 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/20/2016 
TAGS: KCOR ECON PGOV EFIN KMCA CM PINR
SUBJECT: CAMEROON: CORRUPTION TRIAL EMBROILS FIRST LADY, 
OFFERS CORRUPTION PRIMER 
 
REF: A. 2005 YAOUNDE 2147 
     ¶B. YAOUNDE 285 
     ¶C. YAOUNDE 183 
 
Classified By: Political Officer Tad Brown for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary.  Defense attorneys in the FEICOM corruption 
trial created tumult in the courtroom and a splash in the 
headlines when they demanded, on December 19, that the court 
hear testimony from First Lady Chantal Biya and other 
Cameroonian notables who feature prominently in the list of 
illegal cash disbursements.  The Special Council Support Fund 
(French acronym FEICOM) was created to finance municipal 
investment projects, but according to prosecutors, former 
Managing Director Emmanuel Gerard Ondo Ndong and a dozen 
former employees fleeced the agency of more than $102 million 
in illegal cash disbursements from 2001 to 2005.  At this 
point in the trial, defense attorneys are determined to prove 
that their clients were carrying out orders from the 
Presidency, offering a rare look into the mechanics of 
corruption that pervades Cameroon.  There is little reason to 
doubt the Presidency was at some level aware of FEICOM's 
evolution into an ATM for the politically connected, not 
least since the beneficiaries included Biya's hometown, 
political party and wife.  End summary. 
 
------------------------------- 
Putting the Fox in the Henhouse 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  The Special Council Support Fund (official name: 
Fonds Special d'Equipement et d'Intervention Intercommunal or 
FEICOM) was created in 1977 to finance municipal projects 
around Cameroon.  By many accounts, FEICOM was relatively 
functional until President Biya appointed Emmanuel Gerard 
Ondo Ndong in 1999.  With no significant financial, business, 
or management experience, Ondo Ngong was perceived as a 
political lackey appointed for his personal loyalty to 
President Biya and his seniority as a traditional leader 
among Biya's Beti ethnic group (Ref B). 
 
-------------------------- 
Sacrificial Lamb on the 
Altar of Debt Forgiveness 
-------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Although removed from his position on November 12, 
2005 (Ref A), Ondo Ndong remained free until he was arrested, 
along with dozens of others, on February 21, 2006 (Ref B), 
three days before the arrival of an IMF Mission.  The 
Cameroonian press has attributed these arrests to the 
Government of Cameroon's campaign for debt relief under the 
HIPC process and the pressure generated by Ambassador 
Marquardt's public demands for progress in the war against 
corruption (Ref C), a link that is confirmed in discussions 
with our Cameroonian contacts.  Cameroon regularly ranks as 
one of the most corrupt countries in the world.  From among a 
bevy of corrupt government officials, Ondo Ndong was likely 
singled out for prosecution because FEICOM had already 
undergone a sweeping audit at the demand of the French 
development agency (reftels).  The French also had an 
important if less public role in outing Ondo Ndong, after an 
audit they financed revealed the extent of his misdeeds. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Anatomy of Corruption: How To Loot Millions 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Post has obtained copies of the audit and other 
documents presented in court against Ondo Ndong and the other 
defendants.  These hefty tomes reveal that Ondo Ndong and his 
colleagues enjoyed a veritable buffet of embezzlement, 
enriching themselves by, inter alia: 
 
-- issuing themselves periodic bonuses (for Ondo Ndong, 
upwards of $320,000); 
-- forging documents to appropriate FEICOM vehicles 
(including Lexuses, Peugeots, and Land Cruisers); 
-- pocketing millions of dollars in travel expenses for 
"visits to the field" that never took place; 
-- paying personal expenses from FEICOM funds; and 
-- skimming personal cuts from FEICOM contracts and expenses 
paid in cash. 
 
 
YAOUNDE 00001883  002 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------------- 
Even Corruption Needs Paperwork 
------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (U)  Whether for extralegal bonuses or fictitious field 
trips, FEICOM officials dutifully completed paperwork, 
replete with official-sounding purposes, to ensure proper 
bookkeeping.  We know from the documents that FEICOM boasted 
a fleet of vehicles (everything from transport trucks to 
Lexuses), and yet Ondo Ndong signed fictitious travel 
vouchers that consistently included charges for rental 
vehicles (sometimes as much as $400 per day for a 4x4) and 
gasoline ($200 per day per car).  Rather than pay FEICOM 
contractors by check, Ondo Ndong would write a check for a 
subordinate to cash, thereby obscuring any discrepancies 
between the sums withdrawn and the amounts received by the 
contractor.  In one example, FEICOM paid $408,000 for the 
construction of a stadium in Mvomek'a (Biya's hometown), 
disbursed in a check of $200,000 and a cash withdrawal of 
$208,000.  The investigation revealed that the company 
received the payment by check, but that the cash payment of 
$208,000 never reached the company. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Corruption: More than Swiss Bank Accounts 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  One marvels at the various motivations and methods 
involved in looting FEICOM, illustrating that official 
corruption is a multifaceted phenomenon.  Some of the 
purported line items are downright bizarre: $50,000 for 
Christmas tree ornaments; $12,000 towards the funeral for the 
wife of famed soccer player Roger Milla; $1,000 to produce a 
cassette of religious music.  At times it was personal 
enrichment, as when Ondo Ndong forged documents to steal 
FEICOM vehicles.  At other times, FEICOM's accounts were 
treated like a benevolent fund, disbursing $22,000 in 
extralegal payments for the medical evacuation of an 
employee, $2,000 for a food drive, or $20,000 to the American 
School in tuition for a FEICOM employee.  Often, Ondo Ndong 
was called upon to fund nationalistic activities: in April 
2003, Ondo Ndong signed over $240,000 for the organization of 
the 30th anniversary of the May 20th National Day.  The 
Presbyterian Church in Yaounde received $20,000 to fund the 
commemoration of the 77th anniversary of the national hymn. 
In November 2001, FEICOM provided $8,000 to Miss Gisele 
Biwoni to represent Cameroon in Miss Malaika 2001, a beauty 
pageant in South Africa. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Follow the Money All the Way to the Top 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C)  Significantly, the FEICOM records enumerate payments 
to support the election campaign of President Biya and other 
partisan purposes.  Shortly before the 2004 Presidential 
elections, a $10,000 payment was made in the name of "FEICOM 
contribution to the Presidential Campaign."  The most 
sensitive portions of the report are those payments that are 
directly linked to First Lady Chantal Biya through her 
Foundation.  In just four payments in 2001, FEICOM disbursed 
more than $300,000 to the First Lady's HIV/AIDS Foundation. 
In hearings on December 19, attorneys for Ondo Ndong and the 
other defendants have lambasted the prosecutor for 
side-stepping these and other politically sensitive cases and 
demanded that Chantal Biya be called as a witness. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Comment: Even a Show Trial Can Be Revealing 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C)  Many Cameroonians remain skeptical that the FEICOM 
case will amount to anything more than a show trial to 
appease the international community.  They are confident that 
Ondo Ndong will be found guilty and sentenced to a lenient 
jail term (perhaps one year) in return for not telling all he 
knows about the destination of the pilfered funds.  They may 
be correct.  Despite the muck-raking efforts of some 
journalists and defense attorneys, Biya and his coterie have 
too much to lose in a full disclosure of the facts and the 
judiciary's limited independence will be no match for this 
challenge.  While speaking of corruption is no longer the 
taboo it once was here, this case illustrates the limits of 
free expression about it. 
 
YAOUNDE 00001883  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶9.  (C)  Cameroonian officials are afraid to take any 
significant action without approval from the Presidency and 
it is unlikely that such large sums of money would have 
sloshed around the country without implicit approval from 
Unity Palace.  Nevertheless, Biya's personal complicity is 
difficult to gauge because we do not know how much his 
coterie insulates him from Cameroon's day-to-day realities. 
It is disheartening to be faced with such stark evidence that 
corruption has been the norm, not the hidden exception, 
governing Cameroon.  We will continue to keep the pressure on 
the Government and encourage civil society in hopes that 
real, lasting gains might be made.  And, if nothing else, we 
will take advantage of this postmortem to better understand 
how corruption works and, thereby, how best to tailor efforts 
to fight it.  End Comment. 
MARQUARDT