Embezzlement Of Workers’ Funds From The National Corporation For Maritime Transport

The Economic and Financial Division for National Security opened, by order of the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Sidi M’hamed in Algiers, investigations into the organized embezzlement of the money of workers of the National Corporation for Maritime Transport by the syndicate which is supposed to defend the workers’ rights.

Security investigations were based on a complaint submitted by the Directorate of the National Corporation for Maritime Transport to the Public Prosecutor at the Sidi M’hamed Court regarding the registration of violations and embezzlement of workers’ funds in which the syndicate members were involved.

On this basis, and following the text of articles 119 and the penal code, the public prosecutor ordered the Economic and Financial Division of the Security of Algiers to open an investigation into embezzlement and waste of public funds.

The expertise report that was prepared by the account portfolios revealed the size of the embezzlement of public funds, which are estimated in billions of dinars. It detailed the acquisitions of tickets allocated to the workers of the National Maritime Transport Corporation and the fictitious reservations of hotels abroad, without completing the trips with the complicity of some parties, so that the profits would be shared between the parties.

The report on the expertise in this scandal is still ongoing, however, Echorouk sources confirmed that the latter contains serious details about the waste of huge sums of money mainly from the right of the workers in the travellers’ maritime transport, especially since the company is currently facing a difficult situation that threatens the wages of its workforce base, which numbers reach up to 1340 employees, due to the absence of income resulting from the total suspension of cruises, as its financial losses were estimated at 9 billion dinars after suspending its cruises since March 17, 2020, due to the Corona pandemic, and the losses will reach their peak during the current year, if the closure of borders will continue along with the cancellation of cruises.

The debt file, according to data held by Echorouk, constitutes a burden on the National Corporation for Maritime Transport, especially those owed to Naftal, which reach about 209 billion DZD, which must be paid in hard currency, although the Algerian fleet consists of three ships only, Tariq Ibn Ziyad, Tassili and Algeria, which were acquired about 20 years ago.