Ann: March 2017 Quarterly Activities Report, page-92

Geez.......I converted to google English and now I wish I didn't......fcuk me. We're done.........

ENGLISH

As Lubumbashi prepares to host the Katanga mining days on June 23 and 24, 2017, at the level of the financial authorities, a vast campaign is being launched to put an end to harmful mining operators. The mining company Tiger Resources and Mining Contracting Services (MCSC), a subcontractor based in Lubumbashi, are in the sights of the Congolese tax office, especially the customs administration. The situation of the Australian mining company Tiger Resources, which operates the site of Kipoi in the former Katanga, is lost in conjecture. Taken by the Congolese Fis, this mining company spends very turbulent days. And the tax authorities are not ready to let go. From Lubumbashi, concordant sources report that its operations director, Charles Brown, is about to leave the country to blur the tracks in the investigation initiated at the customs administration level for suspicions of customs fraud involving one Of the subcontracting companies of Tiger Resources, namely Mining Contracting Services (MCSC), a company owned by South African and Belgian subjects. In the aisles of the tax administration, it is estimated that "the connection between the complaint and the departure of that person is more than likely." In the mines of the former Katanga, Tiger Resources is not the only company targeted. The same sources indicate that, among other things, the government had initiated an investigation against several mining companies in delicacy with the financial authorities, especially the customs administration. Experts at the Ministry of Finance are working hard to overcome a system of fraud that eats public revenues, while the mining sector should be a much larger source of revenue for the state. THE FIRST ELEMENTS OF THE INVESTIGATION According to the first elements of the survey, the shortfall for the Treasury is about ten million US dollars. For the sole subcontractor MCSC, sources close to the file quantify the amount of litigation to approximately 10 million Usd. Indeed, this company had to profit maliciously from an ingenious, but fraudulent system which allowed it to import equipment and transported without paying the customs duties due to the Public Treasury. The technique used: MCSC benefits from tax-exempt temporary admissions that have to be regularized after two years, according to the law, but which have never been legalized for nearly 4 years. In these times of economic downturn, budgetary rigor and the need for the State to optimize its revenue sources, the customs administration is determined to restore order in Katanga. "We are undoubtedly faced with a system of fraud which obviously penalizes the Treasury. These frauds drove down the entire Congolese economy. It must be done, and for this to happen, convictions will be a very good signal sent to all, "said a senior Customs official involved in the investigation. Indiscretions report that the tax hunt launched in the former Katanga has already given rise to suspensions of unscrupulous customs officers. Nor are MCSC's customers saved. One of the things the tax department is trying to do is get its hands on Tiger Resources' operations director. For the time being, the investigations are just beginning and it is too early to say whether there will be convictions. One thing is certain: these new cases prove that it is urgent to enforce the laws to each of the foreign private operators established in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At a time when the world market has seen an upward trend in the prices of metals, the financial authorities have embarked on a vast work of consolidating and mobilizing revenues in mines. In the former Katanga, Tiger Resources and. MCSC would only be, as one commented in the tax circles, the tree that hides the forest. The hunt has not yet revealed all its secrets. By F.K.