Algeria looses $5 billion in international courts

After France’s Total sued Algeria, it is expected that public enterprise directors and legal affairs officials would take training courses in contract commercial deal formulation starting from September. This is meant to avoid commercial contract errors which are behind legal problems. Algerian companies have paid $5 billion compensation for the last 20 years due to such mistakes.

The training sessions are scheduled for executives and enterprise directors at the Algerian Commerce and Industry Chamber. This comes as Algerian companies loose huge sums due to mistakes in contracts.

Economy expert Kamel Rezigue said Total’s case with Sonatrach is not the only one. Algeria paid more than $5 billion compensation to international courts.

“In every judicial dispute, the Algerian government has to pay compensation estimated at hundreds of million dollars,” he added.

He added that most of the mistakes in contracts and specifications are due to the translation. The contracts did not include all the details such as taxes and profits percentage.

“Those mistakes have been made for decades. Although the Algerian authorities pay the costs, nothing was changed. There is a need for a solution,” he said.