Djibouti’s Attorney General says an audit has found that billions of funds were embezzled in a fraudulent deal between Ministry of Budget officials and businessmen.
A statement from the AG office said: “The Ministry of Budget has misappropriated public funds entrusted to it to cover government expenditures by providing large amounts of services that appear to be dubious and non-existent.”
The report said the money was misappropriated from unnecessary equipment and supplies repeatedly demanded by a company, which was said to be rebuilding the ministry building as well as other equipment including office supplies, computers and other equipment worth billions of money.
The AG said two officials from the Ministry of Budget and a former minister had been arrested.
He also said that some of the businessmen and traders involved in the embezzlement have been arrested.
According to the AG, the investigation confirmed that there was a fraudulent deal between some businessmen and officials of the Ministry of Budget, which embezzled billions of funds of national assets.
He further added that several traders had pleaded guilty to the charges and had returned some of their embezzled money.
The investigation is said to continue and those involved will be referred to the public prosecutor’s office for justice.
The detainees and all the accused could not be immediately found available for comment.
