Algeria: judge to hear Sonelgaz’s CEO and officials over wrongdoings

An examining judge at a court in Algiers will call in CEO, Secretary General, human resources executive director and financial affairs executive director of Algeria’s utility in charge of electricity Sonelgaz along with a large number executives to investigate in a corruption case, Echorouk has learnt.

Investigations showed that suspect K. Bala who is on the run was appointed as an adviser at Sonelgaz for 150 million centimes per month with the help of Algeria’s former energy minister Chakib Khelil, according to the same sources.

Khelil was a mediator between Bala and Sonelgaz to appoint him as computer system general director for 120,000 DZ per month but he rejected that salary. Because of that, Sonelgaz’s officials hired him as an independent consultant in an illegal way. He signed an annual working contract for the position of computer system general director for more than 1 billion centimes.

The suspect worked as an adviser secretly in 2005-2010. He signed public deals by mutual agreement to buy equipments from foreign companies. In 2006, he concluded a contract on computer system project for Sonelgaz in his capacity as an independent adviser living in Switzerland.

He was also involved in decisions of transferring employees and other wrongdoings. Investigations showed that the computer system deal was useless for Sonelgaz as there was no radical change in its computer system.

Bala rented a big villa in Algiers for 100,000 DZ per month and was offered travel tickets to European countries for free.