The government of São Tomé appointed this Thursday a new governor of the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe, Américo d’Oliveira dos Ramos, dismissing Américo Soares de Barros and the rest of his team from the central bank management.
Américo Ramos was Minister of Finance in the government of Patrice Trovoada between 2014 and 2018 and was detained for about three months in 2019, accused of committing the crimes of economic participation in business, illicit enrichment, passive corruption for an illicit act and money laundering, which the Public Prosecutor’s Office would later archive in July of that year for “lack of criminal evidence”.
At issue were a loan of US$30 million from the China International Fund, and a loan of US$17 million from the Kuwait Fund, for the requalification of Hospital Ayres de Menezes, in the capital of São Tomé, both agreed during the Government led by Patrice Trovoada (2014-2018).
Almost two dozen senior civil servants were also exonerated and replaced by the São Tomé council of ministers, which met on Wednesday and Thursday, on a list headed by the secretary general of Internal Security, Raúl Costa Cravid.
The Government of Patrice Trovoada also “torn up” a public service contract signed with two companies for the granting of São Tomé nationality by investment, claiming that it had bypassed the mandatory legal procedure and raised “serious suspicions of a crime of corruption, economic participation in business, influence peddling and money laundering”, according to the statement from the Council of Ministers.
With information from MSN/Lusa