Top Secret: That’s how the Tiguentourine attack exposed the “lethal deal” between Sonatrach and a German firm

The deputy General Manager of Sonatrach in charge of the upstream activities “B. B.”, who is a defendant in the so-called “Sonatrach 01 bribery case”, revealed that the mega deal pertaining to visual monitoring and electronic protection of installations in the Sonatrach industrial compounds in the Sahara desert wrenched by the German firm “Kontal Vonkwerk”, had been concluded in a manner contrary to the laws and regulations.

Such a deal, he said, was based on the written endorsement by the then Minister of energy and mines Chakib Khelil who prodded the former Sonatrach CEO to go ahead and initial the deal with the German firm through mutual consent.

Chakib Khelil, addressed a strongly worded correspondence to Sonatrach’ executives.

The striking revelations  made by defendant “B.B.”, who was being interrogated by an examining magistrate of the Criminal Court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers, showed that former Minister of energy and mines, Chakib Khelil, now present in America, was fully aware of the deal snatched by the German “Kontal Vonkwerk” firm in a way contrary to the law and the law on public procurements, with Sonatrach senior staff receiving firm instructions from the Minister of energy and mines in 2004 urging them to conclude  the deal within a time frame not exceeding six months despite the accord being tinged with glaring loopholes.

The accused also told the examining magistrate that Chakib Khelil’s instruction carried with it a clear threat against the Sonatrach staff in case they failed to seal the deal completely and within the set deadline.

The defendant “B.B.” further revealed that in 2005, he was assigned by presidential decree to be in charge of the Sonatrach upstream activities and of the follow-up on the deal clinched by the German firm “Kontal Vonkwerk”, as a moral entity, and subsequently he saw himself charged with violating the current organizational procedures and inflating prices through contracts with a public enterprise, as well as with bribery and power to unduly influence the enterprise CEO.

He added that  the Sonatrach Executive Board held a meeting in January 2004 in the presence of all members of the directorate  under the chairmanship of former Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Meziane, who commissioned the German firm “Kontal Vonkwerk” with going ahead  with the project related to the setting up of a visual surveillance coverage and electronic protection of an industrial complex located south of Hassi Messaoud, stressing in this connection he refuted any personal involvement in the imposed selection of this German company for this lucrative project.

Former Sonatrach CEO Mohamed Meziane himself, proposed the German Company’s name to the energy Minister.

The defendant’s revelations also  indicated that members of the vying German firm in question visited the Hassi Messaoud site and then put forth a study report on the project, and that the Sonatrach CEO got in touch with the former Energy Minister Chakib Khelil suggesting to him clearly  to allot the relevant pilot project to the German firm although a later investigation showed that this inexperienced firm has never secured  similar deals in the Algerian market.

He also revealed to this effect that the son of Mohamed Meziane, the former Sonatrach CEO, managed to acquire numerous assets, through shadowy means, in one of Sonatrach’s subsidiaries in Algeria.

That’s how the German Company finally snatched the deals through devious means

The accused “B.B.”, now on a pre-trial, further revealed that the German firm won three deals dealing with visual monitoring an and electronic protection project to be implemented in the Hassi Messaoud and Hassi R’mel industrial sites, despite the fact that  the transaction price during the bidding process was set as high as 197 billion centimes (DA).

And in spite of this burdensome financial expenditure stemming from overt outbidding and in line with the instructions of the former Sonatrach CEO himself, the deal with the relevant German firm was formally initialed under the number: I-HSE-88, he added.

The defendant further told the judge during his questioning that he had presented a study project to CEO Mohamed Meziane and asked him to let him negotiate with the German company in order to bring the latter to slash prices in the three deals before the signing of the document itself, particularly as they dealt with a project recommended by the energy Minister himself.

He added that he wanted to negotiate to achieve a  price cut of at least 15 percent, but curiously enough the German Firm eventually clinched the last three transactions in a very  murky and suspicious way, especially in the wake of the withdrawal of the German company “Siemens” from the bidding operations for this very project.

The accused “B.B” also asserted that he had never met or known the other defendant in the “Sonatrach 01 corruption affair”, called “A. M. R”, who was at that time the representative of the German-Algerian company, either before or after such a dubious transaction.