The World Bank has ultimately rejected the contract award procedure after identifying alleged irregularities in the process.
A Procurement Process Under High Tension
King Umurundi Freedom has conducted an investigation into the procurement process for the development of the SIGEFP (Integrated Public Financial Management System) software, financed by the World Bank under the PAFEN project: Project to Support the Foundations of the Digital Economy. It should be recalled that this digital platform is intended to support the monitoring and management of public finances within the framework of the new administrative organization of recently established provinces.
According to information gathered by our organization, this contract, valued at several million US dollars, was allegedly affected by numerous irregularities aimed at favouring the Burundian company MEDIABOX, led by Donatien NDAYISHIMIYE, at the expense of other competing international companies.
Our previous investigation had already revealed that the Tunisian company SIGA, initially ranked first in an earlier procedure, did not ultimately receive the contract after the launch of a new procurement process on 14 May 2025, despite the fact that the winning company had already received a notification letter and two official invitations in this regard, validated by the World Bank. According to our information, this restart of the process allegedly followed interventions by officials within the PAFEN project and representatives of MEDIABOX aimed at reopening competition for the contract.
After becoming aware of these alleged irregularities and investigating them, our organization decided to issue an alert in April 2026, calling on all competent institutions, including the World Bank, to closely monitor the process. Following the publication of these revelations by King Umurundi Freedom, several changes reportedly occurred in the conduct of the procedure.
Our sources indicate, in particular, that the composition of the procurement evaluation committee was modified and that the deadline for submitting bids, initially set for 5 May 2026, was extended until 19 May 2026. This extension allowed more international companies to participate in the tender, whereas, initially, the submission period had allegedly been accelerated in order to facilitate the award of the contract to MEDIABOX without genuine competition, with only three companies having submitted bids at that stage.
An Expanded International Competition
At the closing of this new procedure, ten companies were competing:
LINPICO (France);
FreeBalance Inc. (Canada);
SNDI (Côte d’Ivoire);
CRAFT SILICON LTD (Kenya);
Techno Brain Global FZ-LLC (United Arab Emirates);
SIGA (Tunisia);
KONTEL (Tunisia);
PERFODEV (Burkina Faso);
Société de l’Informatique de Management et de la Communication (Burundi);
MEDIABOX (Burundi).
For this new procedure, MEDIABOX partnered with the Ivorian company SNDI.
According to our information, this partnership was intended, among other things, to strengthen MEDIABOX’s technical credibility, while its director, Donatien NDAYISHIMIYE, remained the main representative associated with the bid.
Repeated Changes to Evaluation Committees
According to our sources, following the opening of bids on 19 May 2026, the other companies were eliminated based on certain technical evaluation criteria. At that stage, only two companies remained in the competition: the Tunisian company SIGA and MEDIABOX.
According to our sources, SIGA continued to rank first during the technical evaluations. It was at this point that new alleged manoeuvres aimed at removing SIGA from the process reportedly began.
Several evaluation committees allegedly followed one another, with three changes in the composition of the committees reportedly taking place during the procurement process.
Information collected by King Umurundi Freedom indicates that these modifications occurred while SIGA continued to obtain the strongest technical evaluations.
Our sources further allege that the Minister of Finance, Dr Alain NDIKUMANA, exerted influence in favour of MEDIABOX. These allegations are also linked to the role attributed to Bienvenu IRAKOZE, coordinator of the PAFEN project in Burundi and Executive Secretary of SETIC (Executive Secretariat for Information and Communication Technologies).
An Unusual Requirement Imposed on SIGA
Our investigation reveals that on 26 May 2026, the latest evaluation committee allegedly requested SIGA to submit, within a period of 72 hours, the original certificates relating to around ten contracts previously executed in other countries.
According to the information obtained, this requirement was not included in the Bidding Documents (BD).
SIGA reportedly responded that certified copies of these documents had already been included in its bid, in accordance with the procurement requirements, and that it was materially impossible to provide the originals within such a short timeframe.
The company also reportedly reminded the committee that its international experience could be verified through previously executed public contracts and publicly available information.
A Contested Evaluation
Our sources indicate that, following this stage, the evaluation committee allegedly awarded MEDIABOX a score above 80%, while SIGA reportedly received a score below 20%.
This evaluation allegedly allowed MEDIABOX to be ranked first and led to the preparation of a report recommending the award of the contract to the company.
However, according to several internal sources within the PAFEN project, this decision reportedly triggered strong opposition. Several officials allegedly considered that the criteria used to eliminate SIGA were not based on any provision contained in the bidding documents.
Despite these reservations, our information indicates that Minister Dr Alain NDIKUMANA allegedly requested the PAFEN coordinator, Bienvenu IRAKOZE, to accelerate the finalization of the evaluation report so that it could be quickly submitted to the World Bank for approval.
This raises a fundamental question: why would the Minister have agreed with Bienvenu IRAKOZE to accelerate the transmission of this report despite the tensions already existing within the PAFEN project?
The World Bank’s Rejection of the Procurement Procedure
At the beginning of June 2026, the evaluation report was reportedly officially submitted to the World Bank.
According to information obtained by King Umurundi Freedom, after reviewing the file, the World Bank allegedly identified significant irregularities in the procurement process.
On 10 July 2026, the institution reportedly rejected the evaluation report and requested that the process be restarted in accordance with the rules applicable to procurement procedures financed by the World Bank.
Our sources indicate that the World Bank required a complete reopening of the procurement process, considering that the numerous irregularities identified made it impossible to proceed with the procedure in its current form.
Questions Raised Over the Role of the Minister of Finance
Our investigation raises several questions regarding the role played by the Minister of Finance, Dr Alain NDIKUMANA.
Based on the information gathered, it appears that he may have personally involved himself in a process that is normally governed by strict technical and administrative rules.
The motivations behind this involvement will be revealed by our organization in future publications. However, at this stage, a fundamental question remains: how and why would a senior official within such a key institution have facilitated or accelerated these alleged irregularities in order to ensure that the report was quickly submitted to the World Bank?
What Risks for Burundi?
Beyond the alleged irregularities, this situation could have significant consequences for public finances and the modernization of Burundi’s public administration.
The SIGEFP software represents one of the key pillars of public financial management reform. Its implementation is essential to support the establishment of the new administrative structures and improve transparency in budget execution.
The rejection of the procurement procedure by the World Bank creates several major risks:
a significant delay in the modernization of the public financial management system;
the risk of improper use of international funding if the procurement process continues to be affected by irregularities;
the possibility that the project may not be completed within the planned timeframe, as the PAFEN programme is scheduled to end on 27 June 2028;
in the worst-case scenario, a potential reconsideration of World Bank financing if compliance requirements are not respected.
Failure to implement SIGEFP would also undermine the objective of digitizing budget management within the new provinces, leaving in place a largely manual system that is often considered more vulnerable to errors, irregularities, and governance risks.
Conclusion
The information gathered by King Umurundi Freedom highlights a series of alleged irregularities in the procurement process for the SIGEFP software contract. According to our sources, these practices were intended to favour a specific company at the expense of competitive rules and procedures required by international financial institutions.
The rejection of the evaluation report by the World Bank represents a major development in this case and confirms the need for a thorough review of the conditions under which this procurement process was conducted.
King Umurundi Freedom will continue its investigations in order to establish the possible responsibilities of all individuals involved and to keep the public informed about the developments of this case.