VZCZCXRO8957
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0117 0351451
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041451Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7465
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
UNCLAS KINSHASA 000117
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV EFIN SOCI KDEM CG
SUBJECT: Prime Minister officially names cabinet
1. On January 7, 10 months after being installed by the National
Assembly, Prime Minister Gizenga officially named the remaining 58
members of his cabinet. Like Gizenga, most are natives of Bandundu
province. He had named nine principal counselors in June 2007. The
January decree replaced two of them, as well as granting the same
status to the head of the prime minister's medical unit. One of the
two principal counselors that were replace is Jean-Claude Nachega,
the South Kivu native and an IMF official educated in the U.S., as
principal counselor for economic and financial affairs. The decree
also named 52 counselors and three secretaries.
2. The Prime Minister's cabinet is divided into nine units -- called
"colleges" in French -- each headed by a principal counselor:
-- Legal, political and administrative
-- Ethics, anti-corruption and public administration reform
-- Social development and combating poverty
-- Economic and financial
-- Social and cultural
-- Infrastructure and reconstruction
-- Technical and environment
-- Strategy, defense, security and inter-institutional relations
-- Evaluation and oversight.
3. The family names of the 58 appointed indicate perhaps only 10
may have origins outside Bandundu. There are nine women among them.
The group of principal counselors appointed last June included four
from the central Kasai provinces, four from Bandundu or Bas-Congo
and one from South Kivu.
4. Well-known figures among those appointed include: Octave
Mankondo Idrissa, from Bandundu, a former dean of the School of
Economics at Kinshasa University, as one of several counselors in
the control and oversight unit; Frederic Kimwanga Fundji, also from
Bandundu, a chemistry lecturer at the Faculty of Science at Kinshasa
University, as counselor for oil issues; Aurelie Bitondo,
vice-governor of South Kivu during the transition, counselor for
reform of auxiliary services; Florence Munsala, of Bas-Congo and
head of an NGO, as counselor for gender issues.
GARVELINK