SFO decision affirms our innocence on Oil bribe allegations- Somalia

wazr — Former Petroleum Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Mokhtar during the signing of oil deal with Soma Oil in 2013. The SFO announced it was dropping investigations into graft allegations against Soma Oil this week.

Somali government has lauded the announcement by UK authorities to discontinue investigations into allegations of graft involving the British oil explorer Soma Oil and Ministry of Petroleum officials in Mogadishu noting the move affirmed transactions were above board.

In a statement Saturday, the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said the decision by the Serious Fraud Office not to pursue the investigations had absolved Ministry officials of any wrong doings and corroborated findings of a committee appointed by the Prime Minister last year.

“This finding is consistent with that of an independent Somali committee appointed by the Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Somalia in 2015. The Committee found no evidence that the capacity building agreement with SOMA was reached on ‘quid pro quo’ basis,” the Ministry said.

The Serious Fraud Office which has been investigating the matter told Soma Oil in a letter a day before High Court hearing last week that there was ‘insufficient evidence of criminality in relation to capacity building payment for there to be any realistic prospect of conviction’.

The UK High Court did not however pass a verdict on the matter contrary to what the Somali Ministry of Petroleum said in a statement today.

The UK investigator had been probing allegations that Soma Oil made illegal payments to Ministry of Petroleum officials for preferential treatment during the signing of Seismic Option Agreement and anticipated signing of the Production Sharing Agreements.

Under the Capacity Building Agreement, Soma Oil is accused of making payments to Somali officials in a manner which the UN said amounted to a ‘quid pro quo’.

But a report from a special committee appointed by PM Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke found no ground to indict any ministry officials but admitted ‘small amounts of the funds were used in a manner not conforming to the provisions of the capacity building agreement’.

Further, the committee said the Ministry acted in good faith by requesting the capacity building arrangement and that there was no favouritism provided by Soma Oil.

SFO though is still pursuing investigations which the High Court described as ‘serious criminality.’

In another letter to Soma, investigators said they were unable to provide any details on grounds of “heightened security concerns, both for information and individuals, associated with a criminal investigation into its business activities in the Federal Republic of Somalia”.

The oil explorer submitted the Exploration Programme data to the government of Somalia in December last year and further followed up with a Notice of Application for Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs).

Meanwhile the Ministry of Petroleum has said it had completed a review of the legal, regulatory and fiscal frameworks of the petroleum sector in collaboration with the World Bank. With the support of the African Development bank, the ministry said it had reviewed the Production Sharing Agreement Model.