“ He Who Reimburses Can See Procedures Dropped"

By Victorine BIY-NFOR, Cameroon Tribune, 05-09-2013

Mujem Fombad Esq., Barrister-at-law, Yaounde spoke to Cameroon Tribune on the the Head of State's decreeof application on reimbursing embezzled funds and freeing those who reimburse such funds. We first wanted to have his reading of the decree.

 The Head of State signed Decree N°2013/288 of September 4, 2013 fixing the modalities for the restitution of corpus litis, that is embezzled funds. The decree spells out the modalities and how reimbursement can be done, before which authority and also the procedure to stop criminal proceedings against those who voluntarily reimburse stolen funds. The big innovation is that it gives the possibility of reimbursement in kind.

And the modalities, what is specific about this?

It states that the reimbursement is paid in cash, that is you pay back the sum of money that you are accused of having embezzled or you restitute to the State items that you embezzled. This, it specifies, can be done at the police when criminal inquiries are still on, to the Examining Magistrate if the file is already before him, at the Legal Department of the Special Criminal Court, and also to the President of the said court or during court sessions. The Special Criminal Court has competence for people who embezzle sums as from FCFA 50 million, but the last part of the decree says that it applies to those who are tried by lower courts for sums less than FCFA 50 million.

The similar authorities in such courts have the right to receive repayments. The decree also specifies that if you reimburse before you are charged to court, you will have a bigger advantage in the sense that if the criminal procedures are dropped, your non-conviction will remain clean. But if you reimburse when you are already charged in court and even if criminal procedures are dropped, it will still be mentioned in your certificate of conviction. People have an advantage to reimburse before they are charged to the court.>>>