Chad accepts charges against three ministers

Chad's national assembly accepted allegations of corruption against three of six government ministers.

Chad's national assembly on Thursday accepted allegations of corruption against three of six government ministers, after the supreme court asked members of parliament to consider their cases.

The lawmakers examined each case and authorised charges against the minister of national education, Abderamane Koko, the secretary general of the government, Limane Mahamat, and the junior finance minister for the budget, Oumar Boukar Gana.

''The accused ministers are suspended from their duties as of this moment,'' said the speaker of the national assembly, Nassour Guelengdouksia, after a vote on each case. ''The prosecutor in the high court of justice will be informed tomorrow (Friday) of the results of the vote.''

The lawmakers rejected graft allegations against Finance Minister Gata Ngoulou, Health Minister Ngombaye Djaibe, and the junior minister for literacy, Khadidja Hassaballah, who were the three other government members targeted in the request from the supreme court.

According to the report by a parliamentary commission on the matter, of which AFP obtained a copy, "the charges are believed to be decisive" in the cases of the three ministers who were suspended, but doubt prevailed in the three other cases.

All six government members, as well as a lawmaker from the ruling party whose parliamentary immunity was lifted on January 19, are suspected of involvement in embezzlement related to the purchase of school textbooks for the year 2009, worth up to two billion CFA francs (three million euros / 4.3 million dollars).

The affair came to light in October and the following month the cabinet agreed on a decree authorising the courts ''to hear, in the role of witnesses'', the six government ministers.

According to the parliamentary report, the trader who was given the deal for the textbooks paid the ministry of national education a bribe of almost 91,500 euros), and also paid more than 114,000 euros to the secretary general of the government, via an intermediary.

The trader also said that he had ''given money several times'' to the junior minister for the budget and reported that there had been ''many night-time telephone calls'' between them.