Hiiraan Online
Sunday, November 29, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somalia’s government has denied claims by the United Nations monitoring group that its petroleum and oil ministry received large sums of payoffs from the British Oil company Soma Oil to facilitate oil deals in Somalia.
The company is under investigation by the UK’s Fraud Office which opened a criminal investigation into the company after the oil firm has allegedly paid illegal salaries to staffers at Somalia’s petroleum
and mineral ministry.
In a statement issued Sunday, the government said it appointed an independent Committee of five that investigated the allegations which it said concluded that the capacity building support provided by an
international company was normal practice.
“The committee also found no evidence that the Ministry and the Soma Oil reached a deal on a ‘quid pro quo’ basis as previously claimed by UNSEMG.” the statement said referring to the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea monitoring group.
In the report issued in August, the UN monitoring group said that ministry staffers diverted payments into a privately-held ministerial account in contravention of FGS regulations, and that it indeed
attempted to have Soma direct its funding into this account.
The monitoring group further described how the misuse of capacity building in the SOMA context fits within a broader pattern of misconduct and misappropriation at the ministry. Soma Oil has also
denied the allegations.
Many major oil companies withdrew from Somalia in the early 1990s when civil war began.
According to the company website, Soma Oil and Gas was founded in 2013 to "pursue oil and gas exploration opportunities in Somalia.