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Senegal’s application for Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) candidate status was approved at the 17 October annual meeting in Abidjan. Senegal is now required to publish its first EITI report by 17 October 2015. At the same meeting, Cameroon was designated EITI compliant. EITI chair Clare Short said: “I congratulate Cameroon on fulfilling all the transparency requirements of the EITI movement. I hope that this will lead to a process of reform that brings real benefits to the people of Cameroon.” 


France’s Veolia, the main shareholder in Société d’Énergie et d’Eau du Gabon (Seeg), has started negotiations with the government for an extension of its concession contract, which expires in 2017. Under the contract, signed in 1997, Seeg has a monopoly of power transmission and distribution and is the main player in generation.The last round of negotiations took place in Libreville on 20 May between energy and water resources minister Désiré Guedon and Seeg board chairman Patrice Fonlladosa. Seeg’s turnover rose by 6.7% in 2014, from CFAF182bn ($309.4m) to CFAF195bn, and the company reported a CFAF6.2bn profit.

Ethiopia’s Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (FEACC) has made its first charges following several recent arrests of Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) officials and local businessmen. Kumlachew Yeshambel, a team leader at ERCA, was charged with taking 200,000 birr ($10,600) in bribes. The FEACC has asked for more time to investigate a batch of new detainees, including local architect Begziabhere Alebel. An estimated 50-60 people have now been detained on suspicion of corruption since the arrests began in early May. The most senior of those arrested is ERCA director-general Melaku Fenta, who has ministerial rank. The FEACC head has said that the arrests followed two years of surveillance, but some local analysts and specialist newsletters question whether the arrests are serious and whether figures such as Fenta are being used as scapegoats to protect powerful officials of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni has received a three-year jail sentence and a ban on holding public office for environmental violations at an Italian power plant while he was head of Enel. Scaroni denies wrongdoing and has said he will appeal. The court threw out a more serious charge of causing an environmental disaster, but ruled that the diesel-fired Porto Tolle plant had posed a risk. Franco Tato, another former Enel chief executive who denies the charges, was also found guilty, while Enel’s current chief executive Fulvio Conti and six other defendants were acquitted.

Talks are under way between the government of Republic of Congo and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a potential three-year Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme. An IMF spokesperson confirmed to African Energy that talks with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso’s administration were continuing following a mission in November but declined to predict when an agreement might be reached. “The IMF continues to hold productive discussions with the authorities.

Energy minister Davis Chirchir has stepped down while anti-corruption officials investigate allegations against him. The self-imposed suspension followed a 26 March speech by President Uhuru Kenyatta, who asked officials named in an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) probe to step down. On 9 April, Chirchir was questioned by the EACC. He has denied any wrongdoing. The EACC alleges that Chirchir used his influence to push for China’s Sinopec to be awarded a Sh43bn ($462m) contract by the Kenya Pipeline Company last year ahead of Lebanese company Zakheem International.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) designated Côte d’Ivoire an EITI compliant country on 22 May. The EITI board commended the improved quality of the country’s 2011 EITI report compared to its previous report – all companies reported their payments, showing the government received over $393m in taxes, fees and royalties from the oil, gas and mining sectors in 2011. Oil and gas revenue increased from $220m in 2010 to almost $300m in 2011, with extractive industries contributing 10% of overall fiscal revenue in 2011, up from 6% the previous year. Côte d’Ivoire underwent its first EITI validation in late 2010 but did not reach compliance.

On 10 October, President Joyce Banda sacked her cabinet amid allegations – dubbed the Capital Hill cash-gate scandal – of widespread government corruption. The scandal appears to have been sparked by the early September attempted assassination of Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo. At first, criminal elements were blamed for the shooting, but most Malawi observers now agree it was linked to a falling-out among corrupt officials who had been exploiting government accounting system loopholes to steal money. Some cabinet members were reinstated but, in mid-October, Banda named former World Bank economist Maxwell Mkwezalamba as finance minister, replacing the sacked Ken Lipenga. 


A British man has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for his role in supplying confidential information in relation to oil and gas engineering projects in Egypt, Russia and Singapore. Graham Marchment, 57, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to three counts of conspiracy to corrupt. His four co-conspirators were convicted in 2012, but Marchment fled to the Philippines, only returning in December 2014 when his passport expired and he was unable to renew it because of the outstanding arrest warrant.

Houston-based Cobalt International Energy has cut ties with its Angolan partners after the latest approach from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC issued Cobalt with a ‘Wells notice’ in early August in relation to its operations in Angola, where it holds interests in blocks 9, 20 and 21. The SEC sends a Wells notice to companies or individuals when it is planning to bring charges against them, but it is neither a formal allegation nor a finding of wrongdoing.

US President Donald Trump is committed to delivering his campaign promises to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and stop funding for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Speaking at a press briefing in London on 30 January, Myron Ebell, who oversaw the Environmental Protection Agency transition team but has returned to his role as a director at the Center for Energy and Environment, said Trump was aiming to leverage US coal and shale resources to achieve “global dominance” in energy supply.

Johannesburg utility City Power has been cleared of all allegations of fraud and corruption relating to a tender awarded to Edison Power Group for advanced metering infrastructure in 2012. An independent review panel chaired by Vuyani Ngalwana concluded that they could find “no evidence of improper interference in the bid evaluation process” and “no evidence of irregularity in the award of [the] contract”.

Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz’s mining company BSG Resources (BSGR) has voluntarily entered administration to protect it from legal disputes related to the Simandou project in Guinea. Business advisory firm BDO said the Royal Court of Guernsey had appointed two of its representatives as joint administrators on 6 March. “Our primary objective is to return BSGR to solvency and to ensure that all creditors will be paid in full.

German engineering and services company Bilfinger SE has agreed to pay a $32m fine to resolve charges that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by bribing Nigerian government officials. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) charged Bilfinger with violating and conspiring to violate the FCPA anti-bribery provisions. The payments made by Bilfinger were intended to obtain and retain contracts for the $387m Eastern Gas Gathering System project. According to court documents, from late 2003 to June 2005, Bilfinger conspired with Willbros Group, its joint venture partner on the project, to make corrupt payments totalling more than $6m to Nigerian government officials to assist in obtaining and retaining contracts on the scheme.

Foreign donors have warned the Tanzanian government that it must take stronger action in fighting public corruption and improving governance, especially in the energy, mining and health sectors. Swedish ambassador Lennarth Hjelmåker told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in Dar es Salaam that “there has been stagnation in the fight against corruption, including a lack of movement on specific anti-corruption cases in key sectors like health, the port and energy”. Hjelmåker chairs a group of donors made up of the African Development Bank, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the World Bank that have committed $560m in general budget support – 5% of the total budget – to Tanzania this year.