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Melaku Fenta is the former Director General of the Ethiopian Customs and Customs Authority (ERCA) whose brilliant career ended abruptly five years ago under the auspices of the United States. a highly publicized corruption case. Two months ago, Melaku was released from prison following the decision of new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D.) to pardon all suspects and convicts in high-level corruption, terrorism and related charges. Melaku, 50, served in the Ethiopian civil service for over 24 years, from an expert level at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. He quickly rose through the ranks to head one of Ethiopia's most challenging government agencies – ERCA. As head of the tax authority, Melaku, who is an economist by training, is credited with leading many tax reforms in Ethiopia and cracking down on tax evaders. A father of four, Melaku is now free and is trying to recover from the damage he has suffered during the last years of imprisonment. The Reporter's Tamiru Tsige met with Melaku this week and sat down with him to reflect on the corruption charges in which he was involved and offer his overall perspective on political developments in Ethiopia. . Extracts:
The Reporter: Tell me how you came to the head of the Ethiopian tax administration?
Melaku Fenta : I was appointed General Manager of Ethiopian Revenue and Customs with a ministerial portfolio in the new government that was formed after the controversial 2005 general elections. As the country was going through a kind During the transition period at the time, we (my colleagues and myself) have focused on completing some of the reforms initiated by our predecessors, while comparing the best reorganization experiences of the past. FISC administration. . Later, we restructured the authority to incorporate both the tax and customs aspects and to be headed by a general manager.
Since then, until the day I went to prison, I directed that authority. The new structure has allowed the authority to go beyond its traditional role as tax collector and to badume the responsibilities of a service provider and a taxpayer. a tax law enforcement entity. Apart from that, we followed a different approach on recruiting and consolidating our human resources by going directly to higher education institutions and recruiting graduates who have outgrown their clbades. We also tried to design specific systems and draft strategies for each workflow to improve the performance of the tax authority. These reform efforts have worked well; When I took over, the administration's annual tax collection capacity was limited to seven billion Birr and, at the time of my incarceration, it had already risen to 85 billion. of birrs.
You have conducted mbadive campaigns to broaden Ethiopia's tax base during your tenure. With that, you are credited for bringing the business community into the fold of the tax. How do you define your role in this regard?
It was really a team work. Of course, I had an important role to play; but also my team to the authority. We must not forget the role of the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi in this regard. At the political level, the Prime Minister played an important role in the implementation of the reforms. We had long discussions with the Prime Minister on how to reform the tax system. From the start, I have presented three options on the table. The first was to maintain the status quo and observe the protocols of a minister and do nothing. The second was to meet expectations and dip our hands in the coffers and take our share. Meanwhile, the third option, for which I want to register, was to implement real unpopular reforms and to disagree with most of the ruling parties. But I also told him that the third option would require his active political commitment and support for the cause. Fortunately, he went with the third option and we were able to profoundly influence the tax sector in the coming years. In fact, Meles raised the issue with the party's executive committee and gave clear instructions that authority is forbidden from unbridled interference by officials.
The biggest problem at the time was the unwarranted interference of some senior party officials and the government. These officials acted as an intermediary between the businessmen and the tax administration and they always wanted to bend the system in favor of those in the business community. They have never trusted the system but their networks and connections. So when Meles was alive, we worked pretty much without interference. However, the situation started to be deglazed. Everyone started to develop an unattainable mindset and began to create interference. Naturally, I resisted these advances vehemently. That's how I ended up in jail. If you see most of the charges against me, they were fabricated and based on hearsay. Personally, I was always aware of how I arrived at the station where I was. I had no tendency to use my office for my personal gain and that is why I have always lived an ordinary life as a civil servant.
Please explain the process of your indictment and all the proceedings concerning your bribery case. 19659007] A few days before my arrest, I was in Bahir Dar to attend a party meeting. On the morning of May 2, 2013, I landed in Addis Ababa and went straight to the house to change clothes and in the afternoons I was in my office. That afternoon, officers came to my office and told me that I was wanted for bribery charges and showed me a warrant for arrest. I did not resist; I told them to make their wish. Then they conducted a thorough search of my office and took me out of my office around 5:00 pm.
The team sent to arrest me was really excessive; It looks like they're apprehending a certain terrorist organ. After that, they brought me back directly to the house, and they spent more than five hours looking at my home. Unlike the law, which states that all searches and seizures should not take place after 18:00, my house was upside down until 23:00 at night. During this time, I can hear the officers contacting their superiors that they were unable to find anything involving in my house. Eventually, they started counting my clothes and took me to what was called Meakelawi with my clothes. There, I was placed in a dark room, in the part of the detention center that they called "Siberia". The prison cell was dark and extremely cold.
Were you kept alone or were there others with you?
I was kept in isolation cell at "Siberia"; I had only 15 minutes of sunshine a day. Apart from where I was, there are the so-called "Dark Room", "Wooden Cell" and "Sheraton" detention rooms in Meakelawi. "Siberia" was the coldest. The so-called "Sheraton" detention room is perhaps the best there. It is here that the prisoners who agreed to cooperate as witnesses are detained. There is also better mobility there. "Siberia" is completely cut off from the world. You can not even be visited by your family; the officers are the ones who will bring the food brought by the family. I had a specific moment to visit the restroom: morning and evening. One thing I noticed is that every prison cell will be locked up when I'm on a break. I never understood why; I was completely isolated.
Tell me about interrogations? What was you asked to reveal?
Unlike the law, most interrogations at Meakelawi will take place during the night. Fortunately, I have not been much questioned. They sometimes called me to confirm this information or that. But, I hear a number of prisoners who are brought into the interrogation room at night. I've heard and sometimes seen – remotely – serious damage caused by interrogators. I've also seen and heard prisoners say to the courts that they were beaten; but the courts usually do nothing. In fact, personally, I was not interrogated violently; never beaten. When I get sick, I will be taken to the police hospital and will receive intravenous (IV) therapy. But, they told me that they had their orders not to give me any medicine or medical care outside of IV.
I had the opportunity to ask one of the senior officers why they use violent interrogation tactics. He simply said that there was no other way to make the suspects confess. He also said that previously, the suspects of corruption were not beaten in confessions; but lately, they have been ordered to apply such interrogation tactics to corruption suspects. I sometimes shrug my shoulders when I hear those same prison administrators claim that there has not been any abuse. Now, I'm grateful that even the public media are telling the truth. I heard Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn say that Meakelawi because of his legacy of atrocities committed on civilians during the Derg era was the reason for the closure of the detention center. But, I am a living witness of similar brutalities committed during the EPRDF 's Meakelawi era. Personally, I do not think that the closure of a detention center is sufficient. it is the state of mind that needs to change.
You faced charges in three different charges while you were in Meakelawi. I know you had to defend a number of charges incorporated into these three expense files. How do you evaluate the substance and the number of these accusations?
Before talking about the substance of the charges against me, I think it's important to explore the driving forces behind the charges. In a word, they were all fabricated to score cheap political points or settle a personal vendetta against me. The charges have not even been written by prosecutors or prosecutors of the anti-corruption commission. I say this because the decision to arrest me was concocted by a team that was commissioned by a network of senior officials and by the approval of the prime minister.
The decision was not even adopted by a majority vote in the committee, but by the heavy hand of some key officials. The other problem is the fact that the decision was approved by the Prime Minister without any dispute. The other strange thing is that as a member of the party's executive committee, the party should have deliberated on the decision before sending me to jail; but that too did not happen. But it is a profound lack of respect for my motherland, the National Amhara Democratic Movement (ANDM). It's purely the job of a mafia like cliques in the party. The funny thing is, some time ago, I was evaluated by the members of my party and labeled without corruption. In fact, since joining the party, I have never been confronted with party criticism of corruption. I am very transparent. The only thing I have is at my house and it is registered with the government and the party. Surprisingly, most senior leaders of my party, ANDM, were informed of my arrest by the media.
He (the mafia like cliques) was a government within the government. On the other hand, the so-called study that led to my arrest was not conducted by the anti-corruption commission; it was instead led by the security apparatus and transferred to the commission. In my opinion, this small circle of officials and veterans of the party is the one who convinced the Prime Minister that I was a potential risk to the security in the country and that I had to be arrested. Imagine, in which world would I be a security risk? And most of this is motivated by personal vendetta. This is why most loads are difficult to make head and tail. As they had the media, they also launched a diatribe to tarnish my name.
But the court found that the prosecutors had produced relevant evidence to substantiate their arguments against you. And therefore, you have been charged with defending yourself. What has it really happened if you claim that they were forged from scratch?
They mostly abused and blackmailed the witness list. And there were some who, from the outset, decided to pose as witnesses and completely escape the accusations. But, they got most of the witnesses through violence and abuse. There were businessmen who refused to testify and rot in jail with me.
At the time, you were also an elected member of the Addis Ababa City Council and you had a form of immunity from arrest. But, the court did not consider that at that time. Why is that?
This is true; I had immunity as an elected board member, but no one bothered to get it up before being arrested. This question was raised after my detention. But, I knew it was going to be easy for these people to lift my immunity if they needed to do that; so for me it did not mean anything. However, the so-called judges have not even bothered to verify and say that it is not appropriate to detain an elected representative with immunity. Even the prosecutors should have done it for the sake of the law. This shows you how they act with impunity.
At the beginning of your trial, there was a problem that required a constitutional interpretation. As a ministerial portfolio, you were supposed to be tried in the Supreme Court; but instead your case has been heard at the Federal High Court. Later, the constitutional interpretation returned the case to the Federal High Court to protect the right of the suspects to appeal. How do you see this decision?
One thing you need to understand, is that their strategy is simply to drag the case as far as possible so that I will rot in a prison cell. They know that the case will be upheld if it is brought before the Supreme Court. They just wanted to prolong the case and inflict the maximum damage. That said, even the interpretations offered by the House of Federation (HoF) were made for these cliques do not benefit me (the suspect). Apart from this, a number of businessmen were released on the basis of the newly ratified customs proclamation. On this proclamation, there is a clause stating that, if they are to the advantage of the suspects, the provisions of the new proclamation will apply to cases brought before the courts at the time of ratification. Now, when it comes to my mind, the law has been interpreted to mean that it does not apply to government officials.
This shows you how the law is interpreted in Ethiopia; it is folded to serve the will of a few cliques in the government. The constitution did not say that laws are interpreted differently for businessmen and government officials. So our opposition had no weight. The court went so far as to intimidate my lawyers. For example, my lawyer Teshager Dessalegn was sued for opposing the court's decision. You know that Judge Gizachew Mitiku was removed from the case and returned his job for judging the case properly. The distance they traveled to attack caused a lot of damage to a number of people. A number of others were forced to leave the institution. It's one thing to attack a person but it's completely absurd to destroy an institution. And they did it using taxpayers' money.
The action of this group has come a long way to provoke a wave that has killed a number of people. These few officials who make up this underground clique are not very brilliant; and they try to label you based on what you say at meetings. At one point, they investigated me on the basis of suspicion that I was a member of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD). Once, when the tax authority was conducting a transaction in the gold mining sector, the security institution presented a study to the Prime Minister (Meles) claiming that I 39 was getting a specific ethnic group. Fortunately, their plan has failed since I kept an up-to-date report with PM and the work I was doing. They tell you to arrest someone and at other times they complain about "tax evasion" being an arrest. Above all, after the death of the last PM, they began to become more daring.
There are rumors that you have collided with a veteran politician, Bereket Simon, regarding the import of a camera imported into the country by a loved one. Tell me about that?
That's right. It was a camera imported by his wife and I said that it should be treated as any other import. I have insisted that importers should pay appropriate taxes and duties or should not cross the border. As they could not do this, the camera was confiscated according to customs laws. I think I have done my job in this regard. I think that he might have developed suspicions against me after this incident. I managed to raise this issue with ANDM's executive committee, but this step was used as a platform to settle accounts against me.
You said that the interference has increased and that the clique has become more daring after the death of Meles. Have you tried to explain the situation to Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn?
Yes, I informed him several times and he told me that he was aware of the case. I had personal relationships with some of these people, so I told them that they should reconsider what they do. I honestly told them that it was destructive for the party. And, shortly after, they became my enemies. Three of them formed a party and the other was from ANDM. I went back to Prime Minister Hailemariam and told him what was going on. He said that he was aware of their activities and encouraged me to continue my work. The various corruptions and embezzlement that took place under various government projects were quite obvious to me and I informed the Prime Minister at the time. On the contrary, what I told him in confidence, I began to hear others and this became another catalyst for my disappearance.
At this point, I remember two officials coming to me to tell me to increment and imprison several people, including the publisher of the newspaper for which you work ([19459005TheReporter). Together, I was also asked to arrest personalities behind companies that advertise The Reporter . In addition, I was also asked to block the import of a printing machine by your newspaper. However, I said no to all because advertisers have the right to display advertisements anywhere (as long as they do not commit tax evasion) and the newspaper's 39, import printing machines.
On the other hand, I did what I could to include both endowments – EFFORT and DRAFT – in the tax system. At one point, I also received the order to work with the security agency of the late Prime Minister Meles, but after observing how things were going, I informed him problems and I asked to be excused. I've also informed Meles of the trend to do what he wants with the Information Network Security Agency (INSA). I have also reported on the state of contraband trade and the involvement of some in the Ethiopian army. Then all these things helped to give me a specific label. I really believed that the change could come from the EPRDF since only a few people do all these things.
How do you see the balance between the substance of the charges and the time it took to hear all the witnesses and consider all the evidence?
At one point I was so tired that I asked the court to send the verdict to my prison cell. It was clear that all the intention was to kill as much time as possible. That's why the prosecutors decided to present the charges so disintegrated. Maybe it could have been consolidated in two or three charges. I've also heard that some people in power fear that the lawsuits against me will last too long, but that they will be dismissed on the pretext that it will embarrbad the government to stop the charges now. The other problem is the fact that some of the people with whom I was accused of having a secret relationship are people that I have not seen in my life until that time. that I meet them in prison.
So, finally, just three days before the final verdict, the prosecutors stopped your charges and let you go. What do you say to that?
But, before that, I already erased my name in five of the charges. I was found guilty in three. But, I still had four charges pending. I am confident that these too would have been thrown away. No matter, I was happy when the government intervened. Part of me still wants to know the final decision on the remaining charges.
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