President Félix Tshisekedi instructed the Congolese government on April 25, 2026, following the 87th Council of Ministers meeting, to launch a comprehensive and nominative audit of export revenue repatriation and the governance of state-linked mining partnerships. The government has thirty days to initiate the process, according to a statement read on the state broadcaster Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise.
The initiative will be coordinated by Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka and will draw on a multi-institutional framework encompassing the ministries of Finance, Budget, National Economy, Mines, and Foreign Trade, as well as the Inspectorate General of Finance and the state mining company Gécamines. Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya confirmed that the operation targets primarily the mining sector, the principal driver of the country's export earnings.
The audit will examine four areas: compliance by export companies with foreign currency repatriation obligations, governance of state-linked mining joint ventures, management of state-held mineral assets, and any revenue losses sustained by the public treasury. The exercise covers a sector in which copper, cobalt, gold, and other strategic minerals account for the bulk of the DRC's hard currency receipts.
The directive comes amid persistent criticism of opacity in certain mining contracts, weak enforcement of currency repatriation rules, and insufficient capture of extractive revenues by the state. It coincides with heightened Western interest in Congolese mineral assets, including under the US-DRC Strategic Minerals Partnership, and with Gécamines' expanding role as a commercial actor in export channels following its joint venture agreement with commodities trader Mercuria.
