PRESIDENT FIRES SECRETARY AS FIRST STEP IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000092


E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/06/2019
TAGS: PGOV KCRM KDEM ECON SOCI IV
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT FIRES SECRETARY AS FIRST STEP IN
ANTI-CORRUPTION CAMPAIGN

REF: 08 ABIDJAN 403

Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Silvia Eiriz for reasons 1.4 (b/d)


1. (U) On February 4, the President's spokesperson issued a
communique, which he read on television, announcing that one
of the President's secretaries, Emilienne Blehon Gome, was
charged in court with using her position to extort 65,542,610
CFA (circa USD 131,000) from a mobile telephone company, MTN.
The communique stated that she was fired from her job and
that the President has never authorized anyone to solicit
funds from businesses in his name or on his behalf. The
communique also said that the President's staff, relatives,
and friends who engage in such activities will be prosecuted.
The communique noted that the activities of the Presidency
are solely financed by the treasury and encouraged the public
to report any such activities to the police.


2. (C) During a meeting with Emboff on February 5,
Presidential spokesperson Gervais Coulibaly refused to tell
Emboff how the Presidency became aware of the extortion, but
admitted that it was not law enforcement that brought it to
their attention. Coulibaly said that President Gbagbo
decided to make an example of Gome, a close relative of
Gbagbo's, in order to make it clear that he upholds good
governance and opposes interference with economic activity.
Coulibaly told Emboff that the President will clean house and
that similar cases will follow because the President wants to
ensure that no one can accuse him or his circle of corruption
during the election. According to Coulibaly, Gbagbo is not
motivated by money or luxury goods and cited his repeated
refusal to be bought off by Cote d'Ivoire's founding father
Felix Houphouet Boigny.


3. (C) Coulibaly told Emboff that President Gbagbo sincerely
wants elections as soon as possible in order to benefit from
what could be termed the "conflict dividend." Coulibaly
explained that many Ivoirians admire Gbagbo for preventing
the Forces Nouvelles from taking over the country as well as
for having devised the mechanism (the Ouagadougou Political
Agreement) that will solve the crisis. According to this
analysis, the longer the election is delayed, the smaller the
electoral gain to Gbagbo as savior of the nation. Coulibaly
admitted that as Cote d'Ivoire returns to normalcy, citizens
will begin to focus on their standard of living. Coulibaly
argued that Gbagbo has been unable to effectively govern the
country because he is saddled with a national reconciliation
government that includes ministers from opposition parties
who obstruct his agenda; this is another reason why he wants
the election held as soon as possible.


4. (U) On February 5, the Ministry of Interior issued a
statement announcing that MTN's Director General, Aimable
Mpore, had been given 5 days to leave the country for
discrediting the President by recording a donation to the
chief of state in MTN's account books. According to the
Interior Ministry's communique, Gome requested the funds on
behalf of the President to provide a health clinic and
ambulance to the residents of Ahounienfoutou village, located
in the central-east of the country. Sixteen persons died in
that village in November 2008 as a result of food poisoning
and Gbagbo visited the village personally after the tragedy.


5. (C) Comment: We suspect there is more to this case than
meets the eye. It is highly unusual for the government to
expel a businessman, and many suspect that it is to keep him
quiet. Gbagbo's handling of this case is reminiscent in some
ways of his crackdown on cocoa sector officials last year.
It appears to demonstrate that he will not hesitate to punish
his cronies, even those closest to him, if he believes that
their greed has unduly damaged the public image he wants to
cultivate. It is true that Gbagbo does not show signs of
wanting to accumulate vast quantities of money, luxury cars,
and mansions for his personal use. This, however, seems not
to be the case for some in his inner circle. Gbagbo seems to
have a real distaste for some acts of corruption and a
genuine commitment to fighting corruption in those instances
- but his eagerness to take action has not gone beyond a
certain realm. Whether he will be successful in promoting a
squeaky clean image to win re-election is hard to tell but it
is interesting that this is the issue he has chosen to
champion. End Comment.


NESBITT