DR Congo said Friday it was not renewing a contract with Belgian firm Semlex for manufacturing biometric passports after allegations of corruption and money laundering. The 2015 contract is set to expire on June 20 but last week, 51 Congolese citizens united under the banner "Congo is not for sale" filed a civil action in Belgium. Congolese activists say that at $185 apiece the passport is one of the most expensive in the world, and allege that $60 of the price goes to a shell company called LRPS. "With more than 600,000 passports sold since the start of the contract with Semlex, the shell company could have collected more than $36 million," the group of activists alleged. The Congolese presidency said in a statement that "the contract will not be renewed in June." Federal Belgian prosecutors told AFP that a judge had been investigating Semlex for three years. But Luc Stalars, a lawyer for the firm, said the company had been denying since 2017 "all the insinuations and smears" and added that the contract had been "executed to the satisfaction of Congolese citizens and authorities." The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the world's poorest nations despite its vast mineral wealth. The contract was signed during the rule of former president Joseph Kabila, who is accused by activists of rampant corruption and misrule. mbb/st/ach/dl