Transparency of the Regulatory System
Lack of transparency poses one of the greatest hurdles to FDI, as investors must navigate an opaque regulatory bureaucracy. Companies routinely find themselves embroiled in tax, customs, and labor disputes arbitrated by court officials who make decisions that do not conform with Congolese law and ROC Ministry of Justice regulations.
ROC has no known informal regulatory processes managed by nongovernmental organizations or private sector associations.
The government develops new regulations internally and rarely requests input from industry representatives. Various ministries have regulatory authority over the individual industries in their area of responsibility, with overall authority coordinated by the Ministry of Economy. The government does not usually offer a formal, public comment period.
The accounting, legal, and regulatory procedures are transparent. ROC uses Francophone Africa’s OHADA – the Organization for Business and Customs Harmonization, or Organisation pour l’Harmonisation en Afrique du Droit des Affaires – system of accounting, legal, and regulatory procedures.
The government does not normally make draft bills or regulations available for public comment.
The government publishes new laws and regulations in ROC’s Official Journal. The Official Journal is available for download at the website of the Secretary General of the Government maintains the Official Journal online at http://www.sgg.cg.
Each government ministry has an inspector general that conducts oversight to ensure that government agencies follow administrative processes. The office of the president additionally has an inspector general who supervises the entire government.
The government announced no new regulatory system, including enforcement reforms, during the reporting period.
The inspector general process is not legally reviewable and not accountable to the public.
No known instances exist where the government made public scientific studies or quantitative analyses on the impact of regulations.
The government makes transparent some public finances and debt obligations, including explicit and contingent liabilities. The Ministry of Finance publishes the arrangements on its website, https://www.finances.gouv.cg/.
International Regulatory Considerations
ROC participates as a member in the Economic Community of Central African States (CEEAC), a regional economic cooperation community, and in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), a monetary union of six Central African states. These regional economic organizations control much of the national regulatory system.
ROC’s regulatory system for business disputes and regulations governing company registration structure and incorporation incorporate Francophone African regulatory norms promulgated by OHADA – the Organization for Business and Customs Harmonization, or Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires.
ROC participates as a member country of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The government does not provide information as to whether or not it notifies the WTO Committee of all draft regulations relating to Technical Barriers to Trade. ROC signed the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement but has not begun implementing the agreement.
Legal System and Judicial Independence
The French civil law legal system serves as the basis of the Congolese legal system.
OHADA, the Organization for Business and Customs Harmonization, or Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires, provides the basis for ROC’s national commercial law, which also incorporates provisions unique to ROC. A commercial court exists in ROC but has not convened since 2016.
The judicial system remains independent in principle, however, in practice the executive branch has intervened in the judicial system.
Appellate courts exist and receive appeals of enforcement actions. Public Law 6-2003, which established the country’s Investment Charter, states that Congolese law will resolve investment disputes. Judgments of foreign courts are difficult to enforce in ROC. Though the government does not usually deny those judgments outright, it may propose process or procedural delays that prolong the matter indefinitely without resolution.
Laws and Regulations on Foreign Direct Investment
ROC’s Commercial Court has authority over any legal disputes involving foreign investors. Investors may also file legal complaints in the OHADA court – based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – which has jurisdiction throughout Francophone Africa. ROC’s Hydrocarbons Law and Mining Code of 2016 contain industry-specific regulations for foreign investments.
The ROC Agency for Business Creation, or Agence Congolaise Pour la Création des Entreprises (ACPCE), serves as a “one-stop shop” for establishing a business. Its website has limited information about laws, rules, and reporting requirements: http://www.acpce.cg/.
Competition and Anti-Trust Laws
No agencies review transactions for competition-related concerns, either domestic or international in nature. Ministries in general monitor individual industries and review industry-related transactions.
Expropriation and Compensation
The ROC government may legally expropriate property if it finds a public need for a given public facility or infrastructure (e.g. roads, hospitals, etc.).
No recent history of expropriation regarding private companies exists. Historically, however, the ROC government has expropriated private property from Congolese citizens to build roads and stadiums. Law entitles the claimants to fair market value compensation, but the government made such compensation inconsistently.
Beginning in 2012, the ROC government expropriated the land of Congolese private property owners in the Kintele suburb of Brazzaville to build a state-of-the-art sports complex for the 2015 African Games. The government offered no compensation, and property owners complained of a lack of legal recourse against the government.
Dispute Settlement
ICSID Convention and New York Convention
ROC is a party to the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID). The ROC government has not ratified the New York Convention of 1958 on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.
There is no specific domestic legislation providing for enforcement of awards under the ICSID Convention.
Investor-State Dispute Settlement
ROC is a member of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), which includes binding international arbitration of investment disputes.
ROC has a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with the United States. U.S. investors have made no recent claims under the agreement.
There have been two investment disputes involving U.S. entities in the past ten years.
In one, a company successfully negotiated a settlement with ROC authorities after filing suit in a New York district court. In the second, a company successfully sued ROC in U.S. and French courts over non-payment for goods and services, however, the ROC government refused to recognize the judgements. Congolese courts subsequently issued their own judgements in favor of the ROC government. The ROC government no longer responds to attempts by the company or intermediaries to engage on this dispute.
Local courts have rarely recognized and enforced foreign arbitral awards issued against the government.
There is no known history of extrajudicial action against foreign investors.
International Commercial Arbitration and Foreign Courts
There is no known alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms available in ROC. ROC inconsistently abides by international arbitration for any treaty, international convention, or organization of which it is a member. In practice, arbitral judgments are difficult to enforce.
Commercial courts constitute the domestic arbitration bodies within the country. The commercial court legislation and structure follows French commercial legislation and structure.
Local courts inconsistently recognize and enforce foreign arbitral awards. ROC law allows for the recognitions of foreign judgments when the relevant laws appear sufficiently similar to Congolese law. Congolese courts have not accepted any foreign arbitral awards in recent years.
Post is not aware of any investment disputes involving state owned enterprises in recent years.
Bankruptcy Regulations
ROC has no specific law that governs bankruptcy. As a member of OHADA, the Organization for Business and Customs Harmonization or Organisation pour l’harmonisation en Afrique du droit des affaires, ROC applies OHADA bankruptcy provisions in the event of corporate or individual insolvency. No laws criminalize bankruptcy. ROC does not have a credit bureau or other credit monitoring authority serving the country’s market.