"Congolese government spokesperson and Minister of Communication and Media Patrick Muyaya Katembwe on Friday firmly rejected allegations that senior officials conspired to solicit bribes from a US-based payment services company, saying the accusations 'distort facts' and 'ignore due process'. Speaking during a Ministry of Social Affairs briefing, Muyaya addressed reports that Idaho-based PayServices has filed a lawsuit in the United States against the DRC and several high-ranking officials, including the Minister of Public Enterprises, the Minister of Finance, and the Governor of the Central Bank, alleging attempted bribery linked to a stalled digital finance project. According to the complaint, PayServices says it was invited in late 2023 to form a joint venture to revitalise the DRC’s public bank and digitise the national economy. The company claims it invested more than $72 million under an agreement that required the Congolese state to pay $20 million within two weeks. “Regarding the PayServices issue, I’ve seen a lot of reactions, but there is a major deception behind this matter. First of all, we must depersonalise the debate. This is an old case dating back to the Sama government, when the person mentioned was not yet Minister of Portfolio.” He explained that 'memoranda of understanding' were discussed under the previous administration, adding that the company presented itself as an equity investment bank. However, he underlined that no binding contract could be signed without the formal involvement of the Finance and Budget ministries, noting that the due diligence process raised serious concerns. “I saw, following this article, that it was said that the woman who was chief of staff yesterday and is now a minister asked for 10 percent in exchange for a bribe. But what you need to know before making any payment is that the legitimacy of the company that is to benefit from this payment must be verified with the Public Treasury and throughout the entire chain,” he explained. He added that the legitimacy and financial capacity of the company had never been properly established. “How can we expect that the person in charge of oversight of the financial capacity of this company, which claimed to be a bank, and that if the State paid three percent, it represented at least 20 million dollars for a bank that must be worth more than 600 million, there is no trace of it?” he questioned. The government spokesperson added that neither former Finance Minister Nicolas Kazadi nor the current finance minister authorised any payment, precisely because the verification process did not allow it. “How do you think all these people, who were well-informed, could get caught up in this game of corruption?” he added. He said it was, therefore, misleading to suggest that officials who blocked the payment were involved in corruption, insisting instead that some of them were subjected to pressure and even blackmail attempts by the service providers. Muyaya added that the government’s legal teams are prepared to present all relevant elements before the courts and suggested the matter should not be prejudged in the media. The Ministry of Public Enterprises reportedly rejected the allegations in a statement, calling them "devoid of any legal, budgetary or accounting basis," and accusing PayServices of falsely presenting itself as a banking institution without the required legal status. According to reports, PayServices claims in its lawsuit that it held a direct meeting last May with President Felix Tshisekedi, who was reportedly 'shocked' by the alleged obstruction of the project."