NGOZI December 28th (ABP) – Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca met on Tuesday in Ngozi province with the leaders of the gold miners’ cooperatives working throughout the country, a check by ABP revealed.
On that occasion, he said that this meeting follows the one organized in the same place on October 22 of this year. This had issued a series of recommendations to curb the fraud that is observed in the gold mining sector, but the observation is that there is no improvement in this sector, whereas, for Mr. Gervais Ndirakobuca, gold ores constitute a common natural wealth for all Burundians. This wealth cannot be squandered by a handful of people who use it as they wish for their own interests. The meeting held in Ngozi is intended to be very decisive, according to him, because it will be a matter of deciding whether the government can continue to work with those cooperatives or whether it is necessary to rectify the situation.
The minister in charge of the mining sector, Ibrahim Uwizeye, pointed out that there has been no significant progress as production for the last six months has turned around 46 kg for the whole country. It visibly fell during the months of November and December.
According to him, a large amount of gold produced is not declared. It passes by to be sold illicitly outside. Worse still, he said, the quantity produced is not going to the BRB as agreed. Minister Uwizeye has requested the involvement of provincial governors to completely eradicate gold fraud. He also asked the communal administrators to install permanent police stations on the exploitation deposits that will give the production report every day.
The meeting was also attended by provincial governors, communal administrators and police officials of entities where gold is produced.