3 March 2006
NGOs call upon the World Bank to investigate mining contracts and problems with the Bank's reform project in DR Congo.
British and Belgian NGOs called on World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to investigate two
mining contracts between the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DR Congo) state mining company,
Gecamines, and two British Virgin Island-based companies, Global Enterprises Ltd and Kinross Forrest
Ltd.
UK-based NGO Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) and Belgium-based NGOs
Broederlijk Delen and 11.11.11 are also asking President Wolfowitz to investigate why the Bank’s
program for restructuring Gecamines has been completely derailed.
The groups point to warnings as early as 2003 from Bank-hired consultants, IMC Consulting Group
(IMC), of the potential “fire sale” of DR Congo’s lucrative mining assets and ore bodies. This has now
occurred. Gecamines, which was in the early 1990s the most lucrative source of state revenue in the DR
Congo, has been stripped of virtually all of its assets and ore bodies through a number of
disadvantageous contracts.
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