Political Career
Born at Owando, Ondongo belongs to the Kouyou ethnic group. He began working at the Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville in the 1980s. After Denis Sassou Nguesso returned to power in the June–October 1997 civil war, he appointed Ondongo as Adviser to the President on the Economy, Finance, and the Budget; Ondongo served in that post from 1997 to 2002. He was then appointed to the government on 18 August 2002 as Secretary of State under the Minister of the Economy, Finance, and the Budget, with responsibility for budgetary reform and financial administration. He was promoted to the position of Minister of Labour, Employment, and Social Security on 7 January 2005.
Ondongo was Congo's candidate for the Presidency of the 96th Session of the International Labour Conference, but Congo withdrew his candidacy on 1 June 2007, allowing the unopposed election of Albania's Kastriot Sulka.
During the campaign for the July 2009 presidential election, Ondongo worked on President Sassou Nguesso's re-election campaign, heading the campaign's finance and budgetary control department. After Sassou Nguesso won re-election, he moved Ondongo to the post of Minister of Finance on 15 September 2009.
At the PCT's Sixth Extraordinary Congress, held in July 2011, Ondongo was elected to the PCT's 51-member Political Bureau. In the July–August 2012 parliamentary election, Ondongo stood as the PCT candidate in the first constituency of Owando. He won the seat in the first round with 75.19% of the vote. In the government appointed after the election, on 25 September 2012, Ondongo retained the finance portfolio and was promoted to the rank of Minister of State.
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