Congo-K Virunga, a high risk investment for CDC Group

摘要

The CDC group, a British governmentrnagency, could come to regret its decisionrnin late April to finance the Congolese companyrnVirunga Energy to the tune of $9 million.rnThe move was aimed at extending thernpower grid from the 12.6 MW electricityrnstation at Mateba, financed by the HowardrnG. Buffett Foundation (HBF) and build twornnew electricity plants at Lubero andrnButembo (35 MW). Our sources report thatrnno less than 65 armed groups are still operatingrnin the Virunga national park. Elsewhere,rna report published at the end ofrn2015 and financed by Germany’s KfW onrnbehalf of the Institut Congolais pour larnConservation de la Nature (ICCN) deploredrnthe “extremely weak level of cooperation and transparency” between ICCN andrnVirunga Foundation UK (VF), to whichrnICCN had handed management of the park.rnThe report said that even though the twornentitles were cited in the managementrncontract in April, 2015 between VF and thernCongolese-registered firm Virunga SARLRDCrnheaded by the park’s director, Emmanuelrnde Merode, the operation involvedrntwo other entities: Virunga SPRL-Belgiquernand Virunga Fund Incorporated –USA,rnthrough which HBF’s funding was funnelledrn( AEI 755). According to the report, thernexistence of the four entities could resultrnin the shifting of financial results from onernto the other and in minimizing taxes. This,rnit said “would be relatively easy to do”.