How a foreign shipping company wreaked havoc in Algeria!

On Tuesday, November 12th, 2024, the judiciary will open a heavy corruption file that affected the maritime transport of passengers at the port of Mostaganem, western Algeria.
The former head of the port of Mostaganem ‘B.R’, former director of exploitation ‘B.H’, former acting director of the same directorate ‘Q.D’ and other Algerian and foreign defendants will appear before the Court of First Instance of Mostaganem for the facts of making suspicious deals and granting unjustified privileges to a foreign company for the maritime transport of passengers.
The case file includes a joint company with foreign capital, specialized in the maritime transport of passengers, benefiting from unjustified privileges by obtaining significant financial exemptions, especially in 2016, 2017 and 2018 under a partnership agreement signed in mid-2016 with two international flights from Mostaganem to Valencia and Barcelona, at the expense of the port of Mostaganem, which incurred terrible losses estimated at billions of dinars.
Investigations revealed that the Port of Mostaganem incurred significant losses as a result of the foreign passenger shipping company receiving a 30 per cent reduction in billing fees for its vessels, as well as a 50 per cent reduction in towing and tugging by the port’s tugboats, if the company does not use the port’s equipment, especially the tug, meaning that the Port of Mostaganem loses between 30 and 50 per cent of the financial revenues that should be collected.
A detailed report was also received by the judicial investigation authorities that includes violations and breaches of several financial exemptions benefiting companies in the entry and exit operations of their vessels, the costs of which fell on the shoulders of the port institution, which is a  blatant violation of Algerian maritime law, which explicitly states that the burden of these operations falls on the ship benefiting from the same operations.
The report also revealed that private companies, mostly businessmen in suspended status, obtained real estate vessels under concession contracts without translating their work on the ground, but former officials did not move to expel these companies, which evaded paying the rent, thus losing the port authority a lot of profits.