BUJUMBURA December 29th (ABP) – The Cabinet met last Wednesday and analyzed a Note on the management of the issue of execution of the contract for the sale of the land housing the former AFB stadium, concluded between the Government of Burundi and Toyota Burundi.
The purpose of that Note was to inform the Cabinet of the progress of the execution of the contract between the Government and the company Toyota Burundi, in relation to the site of the former AFB stadium that the latter bought from the State of Burundi, since February 2013.
It was also a question of the position to be taken, after the formal notice sent to Toyota Burundi with regard to its shortcomings of its contractual obligations as well as the follow-up to it.
It was observed, in fact, that the reaction to the formal notice was made by a company other than Toyota Burundi, which signed the contract with the State of Burundi.
The Cabinet analyzed that file on April 07, 2021 and recommended to notify the company which replied to the letter of formal notice sent to Toyota Burundi, that the State of Burundi does not know it as a party to the contract and to invite Toyota Burundi to respond itself to the correspondence sent to it, especially since it is a party to the contract, in the event that it expresses interest in the continuation of the project to which it is engaged.
It was also recommended to grant it the necessary documents, in particular the building permit, in an additional agreement to be signed, to grant it a period not exceeding three months to start the work, in the meantime, gather all the available elements demonstrating the poor faith of Toyota Burundi as well as the elements presuming its fraudulent attempts and to collaborate with the Minister in charge of Justice, in the management of that file.
By evaluating the step that would have been taken by Toyota Burundi in the fulfillment of its commitments, and after having had the clarifications on the process of issuance and transfer of the title deed, the Cabinet noted that this company has never expressed the will to implement its commitments, that it rather indulged in fraudulent maneuvers. It is obvious that by purchasing that land, Toyota Burundi had other aims.
To that end, it was decided to collect all the elements attesting to the fraudulent maneuvers used in obtaining and transferring the title deed of the land, cancel the sale contract and recover the land, show the damage suffered by the State, compare the state of the land at the time of the sale and its current state and assess the losses caused to the State of Burundi by Toyota Burundi and make it bear them.
A team made up of a representative of the Presidency of the Republic and representatives of the ministries in charge of Infrastructure, Justice and Water will finalize that file, which will be brought back to the Cabinet Meeting in early February 2022.
The Cabinet also studied the draft organic law on the missions, organization, composition, instruction, conditions of service and functioning of the Burundi National Defense Force, which are set by organic law N° 1/04 of February 20, 2017.
That law needs to be revised to meet the following imperatives: the consecration of the title “Commander-in-Chief” for the Head of State, as included in the Constitution instead of “Supreme Commander” which was previously used; the integration into the organic law of the provisions consecrating the existence and operationalization of a unit devoted to patriotic supervision and development support, in this case, the Reserve and Development Support Force “FRAD”; the creation of a special operations unit capable of dealing with terrorist threats and carrying out ad hoc missions as well as the establishment of an Office responsible for the prevention and management of epidemics and pandemics. After discussion and debate, the bill was passed with some corrections to be made.