Tuesday 9 October 2012

Yemen: Anti-corruption moves

 
Some of the Yemeni organisations that look at corruption and malpractice make stinging criticisms of parts of the administration. One such in September exposed corruption in the handling of goods at ports, claiming the state lost about 90% of the revenues.

The Supreme National Anti-Corruption Commission wants the prime minister to consider – and thus cancel – some power generation projects. Another organisation has questioned the prices the government is paying for privately generated electricity. This is an awkward one, given the dire and immediate need for more power generation and the current interest being shown by private sector businessmen in proposals to deal with it – mostly on a provincial level. The real need is to make the whole process more transparent so that the public have confidence that the practices of the Saleh era do not carry over into the Hadi presidency.

The anti-corruption body is also reviewing agreements signed between the government and foreign oil companies. There appears to be no specific target in mind but there has been strong criticism within Yemen over the low price received from a South Korean company for gas taken on a long term contracts – a price which is now well below international gas prices. There are also mumblings about details of the Yemeni LNG agreement.

For more news and expert analysis about Yemen, please see Yemen Focus.

© 2012 Menas Associates

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