Justice: “Securing Branches Of The ‘Imtal’ Complex With Huge Sums And Suspicious Transactions”

The corruption scandals that have affected the General Complex for Metallurgical, Iron and Steel Industries “Imtal” continue to come to light, this time including abuses and violations related to the “security” of the complex’s branches.
According to details obtained by “Echorouk”, on Thursday 25th May, the investigating judge of the eighth chamber of the economic and financial penal pole summoned the audit director of the “Cedar Complex” as a witness in the case file, where he presented the audit files related to “insurance” deals at the level of the complex. Al-Hajjar” and “Sedar”, which showed that the president and general manager of “Imtal”, called “Tareq. B”, who is in temporary detention, committed “serious” abuses under the guise of exploiting his influence and position in the insurance file of the complex and its branches.
According to our sources, these abuses are linked to the fact that the general manager granted one of his close associates (S.A.), an insurance broker based in Algiers, insurance contracts for several branches of the complex, such as the “El Hadjar” and “Sedar” complexes, as well as the National Recovery Corporation. Kabir exceeded 70 billion centimes, which was classified as a violation of the current transaction law, since this “broker” monopolizes insurance deals in several branches, including all the company’s properties, such as the “blast furnace”, “hot and cold rolling mills”, car hangar, shops and all the equipment, as well as the “oxygen station” and everything that requires “insurance”.
In addition to the “insurance” file, the Director of Audit of the “Cedar Complex” also submitted to the investigating judge of the eighth chamber of the Economic and Financial Criminal Court the corruption file relating to the supply of “coal” to the Hajjar complex, a deal that violated all the rules and conditions in force in the granting of public contracts, as it was granted without recourse to the book of conditions, and we will return to the details of the file, which is considered a “scandal” by all standards, later.
At the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Economic and Financial Criminal Court, the investigators of the General Inspectorate of Finance are currently investigating the branches of the Imtal complex, as preliminary investigations indicate that “serious” violations and abuses have been committed by the president, the general manager of the complex and several officials, which will be exposed in due course.
On 13 March, the investigating judge at the Sidi M’hamed Economic and Financial Crimes Tribunal ordered the temporary remand in custody of the President, the General Manager of the “Imtal” Metal, Iron and Steel Industries and 4 other defendants, while deciding to place 17 defendants under judicial supervision, a decision upheld by the prosecution chamber of the court. Algerian Judicial Council on 28 March.
The defendants were charged with serious crimes related to the squandering of public funds, the abuse of position and the conclusion of agreements and contracts in violation of laws and regulations for the purpose of granting undue benefits to others, money laundering and illicit enrichment at the level of the two main branches of the complex, represented by the iron and steel complex. Cedar Al-Hajjar” and the National Reclamation Company, which caused the impact and decline in the production capacity of the complex, affecting its sensitive facilities and frequent stoppages of the production cycle, causing financial damage to the complex and the public treasury.