Customs Officials in Hassi Messaoud Fired Over Illegal Gas Export to Tunisia Ben Ali

High ranking officials at Customs are due to head to the regional department in Ouargla southern province and regional customs inspection section in the gas rich locality of Hassi Messaoud in order to dismiss and transfer officials serving there, following the scandal of the export of natural gas to Tunisia, illegally.

Sources told Echorouk reporter that head of human resources at the Customs head office, head of general inspectorate department and SG of Customs Federation, are due to head to Ouargla as by Sunday, to dismiss current regional director of Customs department in Ouargla, B.A, and replace him by his current assistant, in addition to the dismissal of current head of customs sections inspectorate in Hassi Messaoud.

Such measures have been taken by the Customs head office against officers involved in selling Algerian natural gas to Tunisia Gas and Electricity Company (STEG) behind the control of customs border guards. Detectives concluded that STEG was managed by people close to the stepped down Tunisian President Ben Ali, who benefited from theses illegal deals.

Such measures have been urged by President Bouteflika, following the hearing session devoted to the sector of finance, mostly as the aforementioned scandal inflicted heavy losses to the country’s GDP.

To recall, the scandal was unveiled by Echorouk in April, prompting a delegation of Finance General Inspectorate (IGF) to conduct an investigation in the localities of Hassi Messaoud  and Berma, before handing over a detailed report to the Minister of Finance, Karim Djoudi, and General Director of Customs, Abdou Bouderbala.