Italian prosecutors are investigating possible corruption involving a natural gas pipeline project in Algeria by the energy services company Saipem, which is controlled by the Italian oil company Eni.
As the inquiry has heated up, Saipem’s chief executive resigned Wednesday evening, two other Saipem executives were suspended and the chief financial officer of Eni stepped down. None of the executives have been charged with crimes, according to the companies. Eni alluded to the investigation in statements late Wednesday, but provided no details.
But a person close to the investigation said Thursday that prosecutors were focusing on a suspicious payment of $180 million to $200 million in connection with the pipeline project. The person insisted on anonymity because the inquiry is under way.
Saipem, the largest European drilling and engineering contractor for the oil industry, won a $580 million contract to build a 350-kilometer, or 210-mile, pipeline by the state oil company, Sonatrach, in June 2009. The pipeline is known as GK3. It is not yet clear who paid or received the payment at issue, but the person close to the inquiry said the investigation of the inappropriate payment began in 2009 in Algeria and was taken up the following year by Italian prosecutors.
A Saipem spokesman declined to comment.
In statements late Wednesday, Eni said that Saipem’s chief executive, Pietro Franco Tali, was stepping down.
Eni’s chief financial officer, Alessandro Bernini, who held the same position at Saipem until 2008, also resigned Wednesday, although he “considers that his actions were right and proper,” according to an Eni release.
Eni, which holds nearly 43 percent of Saipem’s shares, wrote in its 2011 annual report that it was asked by the Milan Public Prosecutor in February 2011 to supply documentation “in relation to the crime of alleged international corruption” on the GK3 contract, as well as another gas pipeline project called Galsi. The company said it turned over the documents.
An Eni spokeswoman said Thursday that the company had not been aware “of any further development” in the investigation until being notified on Nov. 22 that Saipem had received “a notice of inquiry” from prosecutors. Eni itself is not a subject of the investigation, she said.
Algeria is known as a difficult place to do business. In 2010 most of the top management at Sonatrach, including the chief executive, Mohamed Meziane, departed amid a corruption investigation by the Algerian government.
Algeria, in the 1960s, was the first Middle Eastern country to develop a gas export industry and continues to supply about 10 percent of Europe’s natural gas imports, according to Leila Benali, an analyst at IHS Cera in Paris. Italy is Algeria’s largest customer, mostly through Eni.
Saipem has been key to helping Sonatrach develop the country’s oil and gas infrastructure, over the years working on Algerian oil and gas projects worth billions of dollars. It had about 2,600 employees in the country in 2010.
Rob Mundy, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London, said in a research note that because of the Algeria situation, Saipem’s “ability to competitively bid on future contracts may be affected.”
Trading in Saipem’s shares was suspended in Milan midday Wednesday before Eni publicly disclosed the problems, after being down 4 percent. They resumed trading on Thursday, ending the day down an additional 6.7 percent in heavy volume.
The investigation is a blow to Eni, which under its chief executive, Paolo Scaroni, is working to establish itself as a premier exploration and production company. Earlier on Wednesday, Eni announced a new natural gas discovery off the coast of Mozambique, where the company has become an early leader in staking a position in that country’s promising gas reserves.
Eni’s stake in Saipem has provided the oil company with a steady source of earnings. On Sept. 30, Saipem reported net profits of €722 million for the first nine months of the year, an increase of nearly 9 percent from the comparable period a year earlier.
Saipem also provides Eni with an in-house source of drilling and engineering services, bolstering bidding efforts on oil and gas projects like the proposed South Stream pipeline that will bring gas from Russia to Southern and Central Europe.
Saipem “has certainly been an asset in terms of providing stable and growing earnings in recent years, and it does give them access to all the services it covers,” said Iain Pyle, an analyst at Bernstein Research in London.
“In terms of winning access, it is more likely it is a reason why they are involved in projects like South Stream, as Saipem will most likely lay the pipe for that,” Mr. Pyle said.
Eni is scrambling to limit the damage from the Saipem investigation. The company, based in Milan, held an emergency board meeting Wednesday evening. In a statement, Eni said that in recent days it had urged Saipem “to take immediate remedial actions in managing the situation.”
On Wednesday evening, Saipem’s board named the chief operating officer of Eni’s gas and power division, Umberto Vergine, to replace Mr. Tali as Saipem’s chief.
The company also suspended Pietro Varone, chief operating officer of Saipem’s engineering and construction unit, following a notice of inquiry from the prosecutor related to the same investigation. Saipem’s board also ordered an internal audit using external consultants. The person close to the investigation said that so far it was limited to Mr. Varone and another unnamed executive but could spread to other persons.
“Saipem believes that its business activities have been conducted in compliance with applicable, internal procedures” and its code of ethics, the company said, and has offered its full cooperation to the prosecutor’s office. It also stated that its board “does not believe that the investigation will have a material effect on the company’s economic results.”
Although Eni has emphasized that Saipem is independently managed, the two companies are intertwined. During an interview on Nov. 19, Mr. Scaroni said that while the company was divesting other noncore assets, he considered Saipem “a major asset.”
He said that Saipem was “managed at arm’s length” because Eni was only “one of the customers” of the engineering company. He said Saipem was the top candidate to build the portion of the proposed South Stream natural gas pipeline from Russia to Eastern and Western Europe, under the Black Sea.
Eni, along with Gazprom, is a crucial backer of the project.
Stanley Reed reported from London and Gaia Pianigiani from Rome.
Source: New York Times
Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Algeria. Show all posts
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
World Report 2010: Backsliding on Human Rights
Human rights conditions deteriorated across North Africa in 2009, with unfair trials in political cases the norm, and a narrowing space for independent journalists and associations to operate, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2010.
Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are among the 15 North African and Middle Eastern countries, and more than 90 countries worldwide, covered in the 612-page World Report 2010, Human Rights Watch's 20th annual global review of human rights practices. The report argues that nations responsible for the worst human rights abuses have over the past year intensified a concerted attack against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse.
"Morocco cracked down hard on those who broke the taboos against critical discussion of the monarchy, Islam, and Western Sahara," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The presidents of Algeria and Tunisia, both re-elected after the constitutions were amended so they could run yet again, showed no signs of allowing greater space for dissent."
The report says there was backsliding on human rights overall in Morocco, undermining progress earlier in the decade. The government imprisoned a magazine editor and a human rights activist for raising sensitive topics, increased politically motivated travel restrictions against Sahrawi activists, and convicted political activists in unfair trials.
President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, re-elected a fifth time with no real opposition, tolerated almost no dissent, using unfair trials and omnipresent plainclothes police to stifle the ability of Tunisians to speak and associate freely.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, also re-elected by a huge margin, maintained Algeria's state of emergency, under which civil liberties, such as the right to organize meetings and demonstrations, are tightly restricted.
MOROCCO
Repressive Legislation Punishes Government Critics
Morocco has a lively civil society and independent press. But authorities, aided by complaisant courts, use repressive legislation to punish and imprison peaceful opponents, especially those who violate taboos against criticizing the king or the monarchy, questioning the "Moroccanness" of Western Sahara, or "denigrating" Islam.
The government relies on laws providing prison terms for "defamatory" or "false" speech to prosecute critical reporting and commentary. Driss Chahtane, editor of al-Mish'al weekly, has been in prison since October for an article about the king's health. A human rights activist, Chekib el-Khayari from Nador, is completing the first year of a three-year sentence for "gravely insulting state institutions" because he accused state officials of complicity in illegal drug-trafficking. On November 14, Moroccan authorities summarily deported one Sahrawi activist, Aminatou Haidar, on the pretext that she had renounced her Moroccan citizenship by the manner in which she had completed a border entry form. The government allowed her to return home 33 days later under international pressure.
On July 28 the Rabat Court of Appeals convicted all 35 defendants in the so-called "Belliraj" case of forming a terrorist network, basing the verdicts almost entirely on the statements attributed to the defendants by the police, even though most defendants had repudiated those statements before the investigating judge and all repudiated the statements at trial. The court refused to investigate allegations of torture and falsified statements. The defendants included six well-known political figures, including two party leaders.
"Morocco's backtracking on rights became apparent to all during 2009," Whitson said. "Developments in 2010 will reveal whether authorities intend to reinforce this negative trend or put the country back on a path of progress on rights."
Human Rights Watch said that the two most significant steps Morocco could take to resume progress are to repeal laws that penalize nonviolent speech or protest that crosses the "red lines:" criticizing the monarchy, Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara, or Islam; and to implement King Mohammed VI's call for consolidating judicial independence by ensuring that courts respect the rights of defendants to challenge incriminating evidence, such as their statements to the police, and to present pertinent witnesses and other evidence in their own defense.
TUNISIA
No Space for Opposition Voices
President Ben Ali won a fifth term in a campaign that allowed no space for opposition voices on the critical issues. Authorities prevent Tunisian human rights organizations and independent journalists from operating freely, and the police impose heavy and arbitrary restrictions on the liberties of released political prisoners.
The country, which has one of the region's longest traditions of independent human rights activity, is today without a single human rights monitoring group that is allowed to operate both legally and freely. The year ended with journalists Taoufik Ben Brik and Zouhair Makhlouf behind bars for their critical reporting and commentary, and hundreds of young men serving prison terms on charges under the anti-terrorism law, even though they were never charged with preparing or carrying out specific acts of violence.
"Tunisia's intolerance for human rights dissent makes it a prime example of a worldwide trend among repressive countries to cover up abuses by trying to silence the messenger," Whitson said.
Tunisia's top priority for 2010 should be to strengthen judicial independence by ensuring that trials are fair, that defendants enjoy all their rights to present relevant evidence, and that judges issue verdicts based on the evidence presented before them in court, Human Rights Watch said.
ALGERIA
Restrictions Limit Civil Liberties
Algeria endured its 18th year under an emergency law that restricts civil liberties. Authorities banned public gatherings, such as outdoor demonstrations and even seminars organized by human rights organizations. The families of the thousands of Algerians whom state agents "disappeared" during the political strife of the 1990s received little or no information about the fate of their loved ones. Meanwhile, the 2006 Law on Peace and National Reconciliation provided a legal framework for the impunity enjoyed de facto by the perpetrators of "disappearances" and other atrocities committed during the 1990s, and for the penalization of criticism of the way the state handled political violence during that era. And, as in Morocco and Tunisia, journalists risked prison terms because of laws that chill free expression by providing penal sanctions for defamation.
"In Algeria, political violence is down compared to when President Bouteflika first took office in 1999," Whitson said. "But while Algerians are safer physically, they are less free when it comes to criticizing and challenging government policies."
Human Rights Watch urged Algeria to roll back the restrictions that muzzle independent media and civil society, and that criminalize questioning the state's handling of the political violence of the 1990s.
Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia are among the 15 North African and Middle Eastern countries, and more than 90 countries worldwide, covered in the 612-page World Report 2010, Human Rights Watch's 20th annual global review of human rights practices. The report argues that nations responsible for the worst human rights abuses have over the past year intensified a concerted attack against human rights defenders and organizations that document abuse.
"Morocco cracked down hard on those who broke the taboos against critical discussion of the monarchy, Islam, and Western Sahara," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The presidents of Algeria and Tunisia, both re-elected after the constitutions were amended so they could run yet again, showed no signs of allowing greater space for dissent."
The report says there was backsliding on human rights overall in Morocco, undermining progress earlier in the decade. The government imprisoned a magazine editor and a human rights activist for raising sensitive topics, increased politically motivated travel restrictions against Sahrawi activists, and convicted political activists in unfair trials.
President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, re-elected a fifth time with no real opposition, tolerated almost no dissent, using unfair trials and omnipresent plainclothes police to stifle the ability of Tunisians to speak and associate freely.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, also re-elected by a huge margin, maintained Algeria's state of emergency, under which civil liberties, such as the right to organize meetings and demonstrations, are tightly restricted.
MOROCCO
Repressive Legislation Punishes Government Critics
Morocco has a lively civil society and independent press. But authorities, aided by complaisant courts, use repressive legislation to punish and imprison peaceful opponents, especially those who violate taboos against criticizing the king or the monarchy, questioning the "Moroccanness" of Western Sahara, or "denigrating" Islam.
The government relies on laws providing prison terms for "defamatory" or "false" speech to prosecute critical reporting and commentary. Driss Chahtane, editor of al-Mish'al weekly, has been in prison since October for an article about the king's health. A human rights activist, Chekib el-Khayari from Nador, is completing the first year of a three-year sentence for "gravely insulting state institutions" because he accused state officials of complicity in illegal drug-trafficking. On November 14, Moroccan authorities summarily deported one Sahrawi activist, Aminatou Haidar, on the pretext that she had renounced her Moroccan citizenship by the manner in which she had completed a border entry form. The government allowed her to return home 33 days later under international pressure.
On July 28 the Rabat Court of Appeals convicted all 35 defendants in the so-called "Belliraj" case of forming a terrorist network, basing the verdicts almost entirely on the statements attributed to the defendants by the police, even though most defendants had repudiated those statements before the investigating judge and all repudiated the statements at trial. The court refused to investigate allegations of torture and falsified statements. The defendants included six well-known political figures, including two party leaders.
"Morocco's backtracking on rights became apparent to all during 2009," Whitson said. "Developments in 2010 will reveal whether authorities intend to reinforce this negative trend or put the country back on a path of progress on rights."
Human Rights Watch said that the two most significant steps Morocco could take to resume progress are to repeal laws that penalize nonviolent speech or protest that crosses the "red lines:" criticizing the monarchy, Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara, or Islam; and to implement King Mohammed VI's call for consolidating judicial independence by ensuring that courts respect the rights of defendants to challenge incriminating evidence, such as their statements to the police, and to present pertinent witnesses and other evidence in their own defense.
TUNISIA
No Space for Opposition Voices
President Ben Ali won a fifth term in a campaign that allowed no space for opposition voices on the critical issues. Authorities prevent Tunisian human rights organizations and independent journalists from operating freely, and the police impose heavy and arbitrary restrictions on the liberties of released political prisoners.
The country, which has one of the region's longest traditions of independent human rights activity, is today without a single human rights monitoring group that is allowed to operate both legally and freely. The year ended with journalists Taoufik Ben Brik and Zouhair Makhlouf behind bars for their critical reporting and commentary, and hundreds of young men serving prison terms on charges under the anti-terrorism law, even though they were never charged with preparing or carrying out specific acts of violence.
"Tunisia's intolerance for human rights dissent makes it a prime example of a worldwide trend among repressive countries to cover up abuses by trying to silence the messenger," Whitson said.
Tunisia's top priority for 2010 should be to strengthen judicial independence by ensuring that trials are fair, that defendants enjoy all their rights to present relevant evidence, and that judges issue verdicts based on the evidence presented before them in court, Human Rights Watch said.
ALGERIA
Restrictions Limit Civil Liberties
Algeria endured its 18th year under an emergency law that restricts civil liberties. Authorities banned public gatherings, such as outdoor demonstrations and even seminars organized by human rights organizations. The families of the thousands of Algerians whom state agents "disappeared" during the political strife of the 1990s received little or no information about the fate of their loved ones. Meanwhile, the 2006 Law on Peace and National Reconciliation provided a legal framework for the impunity enjoyed de facto by the perpetrators of "disappearances" and other atrocities committed during the 1990s, and for the penalization of criticism of the way the state handled political violence during that era. And, as in Morocco and Tunisia, journalists risked prison terms because of laws that chill free expression by providing penal sanctions for defamation.
"In Algeria, political violence is down compared to when President Bouteflika first took office in 1999," Whitson said. "But while Algerians are safer physically, they are less free when it comes to criticizing and challenging government policies."
Human Rights Watch urged Algeria to roll back the restrictions that muzzle independent media and civil society, and that criminalize questioning the state's handling of the political violence of the 1990s.
Sunday, October 29, 2000
South Africa's Arms Trade: Further Progress Needed
South Africa is not living up to its own high standards with respect to arms exports, Human Rights Watch charged. In a 45-page report, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade and Human Rights," Human Rights Watch charged the South African government with selling weapons to countries with serious human rights problems, where an influx of weaponry could significantly worsen ongoing abuses.
In a 45-page report released today, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade and Human Rights," Human Rights Watch charged the South African government with selling weapons to countries with serious human rights problems, where an influx of weaponry could significantly worsen ongoing abuses.
Human Rights Watch noted that after 1994, South Africa announced more restrictive policies on arms transfers. But the report charges that those policies are not always being followed. In 1994, a scandal erupted involving the sale by Armscor, the apartheid-era governmental arms export agency, of weapons to Yemen for probable on-shipment to the former Yugoslavia, then under U.N. embargo.
"South Africa has come a long way in overturning apartheid's awful legacy," said Joost Hiltermann, Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. "In the arms trade, the country has committed to some very good human rights principles. But these principles are not consistently applied and are now under real threat."
The Human Rights Watch report cited examples of weapons sales since 1994 to governments engaging in repression against their own people or to countries involved in their own or others' civil wars. These sales clearly violated South Africa's own stated policies. Purchasers of South African arms include Algeria, Angola, Colombia, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), India, Namibia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Hiltermann noted that South Africa has a strong record in other areas involving the nexus of military policy and human rights. The South African government has taken firm position on banning antipersonnel landmines, and has been one of the world's leaders in implementing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. It has taken important steps to curb the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons in southern Africa, and passed a law on mercenaries in 1998, which prohibited South African citizens from participating in either internal or international armed conflicts. But Hiltermann urged that the South African government do more to institutionalize the important policy reforms on arms sales made since the first democratic elections in 1994. "First and foremost, South Africa should formalize in law the arms export policies that the government has declared on paper, which include a code of conduct on arms transfers," said Hiltermann. He also urged a more significant role for parliament and civil society in arms trade decisions.
Human Rights Watch called on South Africa to:
· establish a legal framework for its arms export policy;
· enhance the capacity of government officials to assess the human rights implications of arms transfers;
· increase the participation of parliament and civil society in arms trade decisions;
· make a greater commitment to full transparency in arms exports.
Source: Human Rights Watch
In a 45-page report released today, "A Question of Principle: Arms Trade and Human Rights," Human Rights Watch charged the South African government with selling weapons to countries with serious human rights problems, where an influx of weaponry could significantly worsen ongoing abuses.
Human Rights Watch noted that after 1994, South Africa announced more restrictive policies on arms transfers. But the report charges that those policies are not always being followed. In 1994, a scandal erupted involving the sale by Armscor, the apartheid-era governmental arms export agency, of weapons to Yemen for probable on-shipment to the former Yugoslavia, then under U.N. embargo.
"South Africa has come a long way in overturning apartheid's awful legacy," said Joost Hiltermann, Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch. "In the arms trade, the country has committed to some very good human rights principles. But these principles are not consistently applied and are now under real threat."
The Human Rights Watch report cited examples of weapons sales since 1994 to governments engaging in repression against their own people or to countries involved in their own or others' civil wars. These sales clearly violated South Africa's own stated policies. Purchasers of South African arms include Algeria, Angola, Colombia, the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), India, Namibia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Hiltermann noted that South Africa has a strong record in other areas involving the nexus of military policy and human rights. The South African government has taken firm position on banning antipersonnel landmines, and has been one of the world's leaders in implementing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. It has taken important steps to curb the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons in southern Africa, and passed a law on mercenaries in 1998, which prohibited South African citizens from participating in either internal or international armed conflicts. But Hiltermann urged that the South African government do more to institutionalize the important policy reforms on arms sales made since the first democratic elections in 1994. "First and foremost, South Africa should formalize in law the arms export policies that the government has declared on paper, which include a code of conduct on arms transfers," said Hiltermann. He also urged a more significant role for parliament and civil society in arms trade decisions.
Human Rights Watch called on South Africa to:
· establish a legal framework for its arms export policy;
· enhance the capacity of government officials to assess the human rights implications of arms transfers;
· increase the participation of parliament and civil society in arms trade decisions;
· make a greater commitment to full transparency in arms exports.
Source: Human Rights Watch
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