Burning of the Foreign Investments' Files: The Case Takes New Dimensions

An expert in assessing the damages caused by natural disasters and industrial hazards, and fire, working for the Algerian Company of Insurance, was fired and prevented from entering to the new offices of the National Agency for Investment Promotion, which was subject to fire that destroyed the entire files and documents and many‬ computers ‭at ‭the new headquarters.

‬Workers of the National Agency for the Promotion of investment said they received the decision and strict instructions from the General Directorate of the NAOI, which decided to prevent any person from entering the offices that have been exposed to the combustion, in order to prevent the leakage of information to the public opinion, in an attempt to cover up the scandal that rocked the largest agency, which is considered as the ‭Algeria’s interface ‭to attract direct foreign investments‭. ‬

The expert moved to assess the damages of the offices of the national company of information systems, but the General Manager of the National Agency for Investment Promotion, Abdelkrim Mansouri went to the new offices which were burnt in Mohammedia to calm things down and to convince the expert not to resort to justice‭ ‬ to ask for ‬the public power to continue his work‭. ‬

When the expert was allowed to enter the scene he discovered the true scandal, which is hiding evidence on the investigation of security services, and this required conducting supplementary investigation of security experts belonging to the center of scientific police in Cateau Neuve, El Biar (Algiers), who moved for the second time to the office that was exposed to fire and were surprised that they did not notice the office which contain huge amounts of files and computers, and database of the investment projects approved by the Agency in recent years, not only files of the ‭year ‭2012,and found that the National Agency for Promoting Investment ‭and the Ministry of ‭Industry, ‭and the Finance Ministry, with its various directorates, ‭lost the digital ‭and material sources ‭ , including the paper files‭.

Sources close to the investigation said that the fire came from inside the offices with the single window on the first floor of the building, which was acquired by the National Agency for Investment Promotion, during the beginning of 2012, without the consent of the National Company for Information Systems, which put the primary responsibility of the Agency under a lot of pressure after he was asked by insurance companies to provide a contract of rent and the bilateral agreement that allows him to enter the new offices, before it is shown that he does not have the documents and that he decided to transfer the single window for investment to Mohammedia with a phone call from officials within the Ministry of Industry and promotion of investment, which were planning for years to close the National Company for Information Systems, for the acquisitions of the floor of the company in Mohammedia, which covers an area of ​​approximately 6600 square meters, and this after many attempts to privatizing and selling it to private partners who are active in the provision of information services and technology solutions, and who think that the National company for information systems, which was created in 1969, is a fierce competitor to them in the Algerian market, and that they must get rid of it, and this have been initiated already by the Ministry of Industry and the company of managing‭ ‬ the state’s shares at ‭the sector of services, ‭through freezing ‭all ‭accounts of ‭the national company of information‭ ‬systems since ‭weeks, though the positive results obtained by the company since 2009. ‬