Parakou: agents involved in embezzlement suspended and prosecuted
Municipal agents involved in a case of embezzlement at the Parakou city hall have been presented to the Public Prosecutor.
SUMMARY
The legal procedure follows an internal audit commissioned by the city hall’s executive secretary, Hyacinthe Elégbédé. The latter immediately suspended the implicated agents and forwarded the case to the appropriate authorities.
Embezzlement revealed by a rigorous audit
The case originated from an audit of the Administrative and Financial Affairs Department, conducted in collaboration with the Recovery service and the municipal Treasury. It focused on the management of bus loading taxes during the period from October 2024 to May 2025.
The investigations revealed that 7,520,000 F CFA was indeed collected from carriers, but only 2,715,000 F CFA was returned to the city hall’s coffers. An unexplained discrepancy of 4.8 million appeared, to which 10 ticket books – nowhere to be found – were added, the accumulated value of which corresponds to 5 million CFA francs.
The initial argument, citing an “absence of allocation line in the Gbco and WMoney financial software”, did not hold up against the analysis of the ticket books and collection forms. The physical evidence quickly led to the discovery of the fraud. The case is now in the hands of justice.
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