Roger Busima Kataala

Director General, Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands

Roger Busima Kataala is the head of the Agence Congolaise des Travaux Grands (ACGT), the  agency that supervises Chinese-led infrastructure construction. The administrator has become increasingly visible in publicising progress and deflecting criticism of the massive public works.

The Sino-Congolais des Mines agreement has been mired in controversy from the beginning. Agreed in April 2008 by Congo’s Infrastructure Minister Pierre Lumbi Okongo and Chinese partners Sinohydro and China Railway Group, the Sicomines deal would trade infrastructure and mine redevelopment for copper and cobalt mining concessions. The International  Monetary Fund quickly took exception to the size of the deal – US$9 billion – just at a time when the Fund was preparing to write off $11 bn. in foreign debt. After negotiations between the three sides, the IMF declared itself satisfied with a reduced $6 bn. deal in late 2009.

President Joseph Kabila takes a great interest in the projects: their fortunes are likely to sway his own in the 2011 election. He established two agencies in the Ministry of Infrastructure – Kataala’s ACGT minds the infrastructure projects, and the Bureau de Coordination et de Suivi du Programme Sino-Congolais, run by Moïse Ekanga Lushima, supervises the mining side.

Kataala is a bureaucrat whose career has become increasingly tied to China’s involvement. In 2006, he was a senior adviser to Vice-President Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, in charge of Reconstruction and Infrastructure, and then became Managing Director General of the Office de Voirie et Drainage in 2008. There, he got to know the incoming Chinese contractors. The AGCT was established in December 2008 with Kataala as head.