While Kinshasa boasts record tax collection figures, the General Directorate of Customs is methodically stifling the Congolese Control Office. At stake: the energy security of the country's south and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. An investigation into institutional sabotage.
In the hushed silence of air-conditioned offices in Gombe, a silent power struggle has been playing out for months between two pillars of the Congolese state apparatus. On one side, the General Directorate of Customs and Excise (DGDA), which is posting spectacular results: 6,848 billion Congolese francs collected by the end of December 2025, representing a 109% achievement rate. On the other side is the Congolese Office of Control (OCC), the public body responsible for certifying the quality and quantity of imported goods, whose coffers are being systematically emptied by its customs partner.
At the heart of the conflict: debts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, systematically withheld by the DGDA's management committee. This financial blockage, according to documents obtained by our editorial team, is dismantling, one by one, the barriers to oil control in the southern region of the country, a strategic gateway for hydrocarbons from Southern Africa.
The Silent Apocalypse: When Quality Control Disappears
The consequences of this financial strangulation are already palpable on the ground. Without resources, the OCC (Congolese Control Office) can no longer fully carry out its quantitative and qualitative certification missions at the Katanga borders. Yet, in this strategic mining province, the stakes go far beyond a simple administrative formality.
The Specter of "Poisonous" Fuels. Non-compliant petroleum products (solvent mixtures, excessive sulfur content) are a very real threat. As early as 2022, a shipment of fuel was declared non-compliant with Congolese standards due to excessive sulfur content. A study by the NGO Public Eye revealed that the sulfur content of diesel samples analyzed in Africa could be up to 630 times higher than European values. Without controls, these toxic products flood the vehicle fleet and mining equipment in Katanga, leading to premature engine wear and estimated losses of billions of dollars for economic operators.
Tax Blindness. Quantitative certification is the only safeguard against the underreporting of fuel stocks. The phenomenon is widespread: every month, nearly 180,000 cubic meters of fuel escape official channels in the south of the country—a difference between the 120,000 cubic meters declared and the more than 300,000 cubic meters actually estimated. This represents a hemorrhage of hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the public treasury.
Rolling time bombs. The lack of quality control also means unstable products circulating on the roads. The Kasumbalesa tragedy in November 2014 (a fire that killed four people and destroyed more than sixty trucks, with damages estimated at nearly $100 million) remains a grim warning of what lies ahead.
Financial Blockage: A License to Harm Granted to Fraudsters
How did we get here? Since the establishment of the Single Window, the OCC (Congolese Control Office) has faced a systematic underreporting of its revenue from goods inspections. The mechanism is simple: the funds paid by importers to finance OCC inspections remain frozen in the banking system, without being transferred to the control body.
A mission by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) conducted in 2023, covering the period 2006-2024, confirmed the extent of the problem. These funds "cannot be returned to importers without canceling the relevant licenses, nor can they be paid to the OCC, creating a situation of administrative and financial deadlock." The government itself acknowledged in March 2026 that "many importers do not submit their goods for inspection and declare them upon arrival in the DRC as unlicensed imports."
In other words, by withholding OCC funds, the DGDA is handing the country's keys to the economy on a silver platter to fraud networks. And these networks are taking full advantage of it.
Acacia Bandubola's Red Alert
On January 30, 2026, the Minister of Hydrocarbons, Acacia Bandubola, sent a letter to the Director General of the DGDA to warn of "massive organized customs fraud on petroleum products in the southern region of the country." According to her information, nearly $800 million was lost to the public treasury in 2025 due to these fraudulent practices.
In her letter, the Minister questions "the DGDA's inaction and the lack of visible disciplinary measures, suggesting possible passive or active complicity." She describes the petroleum fraud in the southern region as "a veritable fiscal and parafiscal hemorrhage for the Congolese state." These are serious accusations which, according to the minister, would implicate certain departments of the DGDA in mechanisms to circumvent customs procedures.
The Deafening Silence of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons
But in this debacle, another absence is striking: that of the Ministry of Hydrocarbons itself. As the head of the sector, it is conspicuous by its inaction. How can the state certification body be allowed to slowly wither away without reacting? This silence, denounced in the documents we were able to consult, borders on complicity. Every shipment of adulterated fuel that crosses the southern border without rigorous verification is a testament to the failure of a ministry that has abdicated its leadership.
An Alarming Geopolitical Context
This crisis is occurring within a particularly tense regional and international context. The DRC, an oil-producing country, no longer has a refinery. It is therefore almost entirely dependent on imports of refined fuels, a vulnerability that geopolitical tensions in the Middle East only exacerbate.
The war in Ukraine, the sanctions against Russia, and the unrest in the Middle East have disrupted global supply chains. In this context, every drop of fuel entering the DRC should be rigorously controlled. Yet, precisely the opposite is happening: the control system is being systematically disabled.
The Insufficient Technological Response
Faced with this alarming situation, the government attempted a technological response. A pilot test of electronic seals on tanker trucks, conducted in March 2025 in collaboration with the DGDA (General Directorate of Customs and Excise) and the OCC (Congolese Control Office), demonstrated its effectiveness. The stated objective is to increase the volume officially transported to 300,000 m³ per month, reducing fixed costs by $236/m³.
But this initiative, however commendable, does not solve the fundamental problem: without resources for the OCC, and without qualitative and quantitative certification, electronic seals are merely a band-aid on a severed artery.
The Names Behind the Blockage
Investigators are currently working to identify the intermediaries and networks pulling the strings behind this financial blockage. Crucial questions remain unanswered: Who truly benefits from this lack of oversight? Why does the DGDA management committee persist in withholding these hundreds of millions of dollars despite repeated warnings?
Evidence points to powerful interests in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. The meeting of February 18, 2026, between the DGDA and the Federation of Congolese Enterprises (FEC) of Haut-Katanga confirmed the existence of "fraudulent practices in the southern zone" and "dysfunctions within the joint brigade." The FEC called on the DGDA to ensure "strict compliance with the Customs Code," a call that, for the time being, appears to have gone unheeded.
The Moment of Truth
The Congolese people will not be sacrificed on the altar of special interests. The ongoing institutional heist—for that is what it is—will not go unpunished. The government, having been informed of the matter, has asked the Minister of Justice to "trace the fraudulent operations that have resulted in a loss of revenue for public finances" and to "impose exemplary sanctions" against the perpetrators.
But words are no longer enough. Action is needed. The OCC's funds must be released immediately. Those responsible for this institutional sabotage must be held accountable. Petroleum certification, in the South as elsewhere, must become a reality, not just an empty shell.
Because by suffocating the OCC, the DGDA is not simply depriving a partner of its resources. It is exposing the entire nation to a threat to the state: the threat of seeing its engines stall, its revenues vanish, and its roads burn. A ticking time bomb that no one, neither in Kinshasa nor in Lubumbashi, can continue to ignore.