11 Accused Of Suspicious Trips, Forgery Of Invoices And Visas

11 accused, including 9 employees of Air Algérie, will appear on September 8 before the Sidi M’hamed Court in Algiers, on the facts of granting contracts by mutual consent to a travel and tourism agency, organizing travel and recreational trips for Air Algérie workers in suspicious ways, as well as inflating invoices for the company’s workers’ accommodation in various countries, such as Tunisia and Turkey, in addition to the Emirate of Dubai.
The details of the case, according to information in possession of “Echorouk”, began in October 2022, when the National Office for the Suppression of Corruption received a complaint signed by three workers from Air Algérie against the Secretary-General of the union and the head of the participation committee of the same company, named “T.S”, and both a member of the executive office of the participation committee and the head of the social services committee, including possible violations that may have been committed in the management of social services funds for the company’s workers, accompanied by the accounts reports for the years 2017 and 2018 as well as the internal law of the participation committee and some laws related to the travel and tourism agency “M.K”.
On this basis, an investigation was opened into the facts of the case, where the investigation services of the National Office for the Suppression of Corruption directed the Director of Legal Affairs and Insurance at the airline company to provide it with a copy of the internal regulations governing the conclusion of contracts in the company, in addition to a copy of the file of agreements concluded by the Participation Committee with the “M.K” Tourism and Travel Agency, and the “A” tourist complex in the  eastern province of Boumerdes, in addition to providing it with the reports of the auditor from 2016 to 2021 as well as the financial and literary reports of the Participation Committee from 2016 to 2021 and the agreement to grant the management of social services to the Participation Committee.
When the whistleblowers were heard about the facts of the case, they stated that there were wholesale violations in the management of the funds of the Participation Committee of the Algerian Airlines Company, during the term of the Chairman of the Committee, who is currently in Mustapha Pacha Hospital, due to the deterioration of his health condition, along with the Chairman of the Contracts Committee and a number of its members in the same company, in collusion with the “M.K” Tourism and Travel Agency, represented in inflating the bills for the accommodation of the company’s workers in various regions such as Tunisia, Turkey and the Emirate of Dubai, for the purpose of travel and recreation, and this in exchange for receiving benefits and gifts represented in travel and accommodation in luxury hotels in these countries with their families and relatives.
In addition, forging residence receipts and travel visas and working to issue fake invoices in the name of Air Algérie workers, as well as forging the duration of residence there, with granting the “M.K” Travel and Tourism Agency an agreement to organize travel and recreational trips for the benefit of Air Algérie workers for a period of 5 years in suspicious ways, while there are agencies that provide better services at competitive prices, and this without respecting the regulations in force in how to select operators.
Another violation is providing treatment for them and their families from the financial account of the participating committee, while this matter is contrary to the law, as the Social Services Directorate is supposed to pay these dues.
The investigations also revealed that the work of the participating committee is being carried out outside the legal frameworks because the term of the term has expired, as its legal terms are 3 years from the date of its approval, according to the text of Article 66 of the internal law, and the matter was carried out in collusion with the former CEO of the airline, due to the existence of a common interest, represented in the exchange of benefits between them.
It was also recorded that receipts for benefiting from travel and accommodation services were withdrawn from the Social Services Management Committee and sold to the “M.K” Travel and Tourism Agency for an amount of 100,000 Algerian dinars.
The latter, after collecting the largest possible number of these receipts, forges exit visas and signs these receipts with forged seals, to prove that the beneficiary of the service is staying in a hotel abroad. Then, it prepares fake invoices and pays them to the participating committee to complete the settlement process.
On the other hand, there are individuals from the company whose names were placed on the invoices as having benefited from the services of this agency, while they did not actually benefit from them and have no knowledge at all about the subject, and some of them do not even have a passport.
For example, the employee “A.A” was issued a receipt for benefiting from travel and accommodation in Turkey, but she did not travel or reside in this country at all and the visa and length of stay were forged. There are also more than 13 workers whose receipts were sold to benefit from the agency’s services without actually benefiting from them.