Petroleum Africa
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Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Soma Oil & Gas is reportedly under investigation by the UN for paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars to senior Somali civil servants, according to a BBC report. According to a UN report seen by the BBC, the payments made by the company amount to in some cases to “acts that undermine Somali public institutions through corruption.”
The BBC report said the UN’s Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into the allegations.
The report details payments totaling £315,000 from Soma Oil & Gas to the Somali Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, beginning in June 2014. The money was part of a ‘capacity building program’ which was ostensibly intended to cover the salaries of a small number of experts, including geologists and geoscientists.
However, UN investigators say the payments appear to have been used to fund systematic payoffs to senior ministerial officials, some of whom were “instrumental in both securing the company’s initial contract, and negotiating subsequent agreements.”
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