Two former ministers of the Bouteflika era, Houda Imane Feraoun, of Posts and Telecommunications, and Djamila Tamazirt, of Industry, were placed under arrest warrant on Wednesday December 9 for separate cases linked to “the abuse of function ”,“ squandering of public funds ”,“ violation of public procurement regulations ”and“ granting undue advantages ”.
The case of the former Minister of Telecom, a powerful lady during the reign of Bouteflika, concerns the contract obtained by Mobilink, one of the subsidiaries of the industrial group of the Kouninef brothers, imprisoned for corruption, for the installation of telephone booths in 2004… when the country had just granted the third license for a mobile telephone operator.
Saïd Bouteflika involved?
Whistleblowers and judicial investigators have uncovered “numerous anomalies” in the contract concluded (or rather imposed) with Algeria Telecom causing damage, estimated by the courts, at three billion dinars (around 19 million dinars). euros), amount paid by the public operator to the Kouninef following a dispute. The positive outcome of the arbitration and the contract awarded for the Kouninef brothers, close to the Bouteflika circle, would have been, according to the investigators, facilitated by the patron saint of the time, the young minister Houda Imène Feraoun.
“The most informed expect that Saïd Bouteflika, the adviser brother of the deposed president, currently in detention in the military prison of Blida, to be heard within the framework of this case. His name appeared several times during the trial of the Kouninef brothers ”, explains El Watan, highlighting the links of connivance between the former minister, the Kouninef and the Bouteflika clan. But this first case would only be the beginning of a series. “The indelicate actions of the former minister have deeply affected the development in the field of new technologies, e-payment, and the boom in the sector in general in a country so late in the Internet question”, underlines a close source folder.
In March 2020, several Algerian media evoke the blocking, by the minister, of the project to extend optical fiber in the border and Saharan areas of the country. “The former minister would be involved in blocking the project […] after having eliminated companies having won the contract to favor the company of the Kouninef brothers, currently in detention. Worse, this company did not carry out the project and it subcontracted with other private companies, causing losses in the billions of dinars. The extension of the fiber optic network to these regions is, however, of a strategic and security character, since it was aimed at securing the country’s borders ”, explained media sources.
M-payment victim of corruption
Another important project blocked: m-payment, or payment by mobile. A survey by the Maghreb Émergent economic site. “The history of the blocking of the m-payment solution, the harmful effects of which will continue to poison the lives of millions of Algerians for a long time to come, is now coming to the surface thanks to a greater disposition of executives in the telecoms sector to reveal to the Emerging Maghreb its real issues, ”writes the author of the survey.
“The Mobilis m-payment project [opérateur public] – two years of hard work and more than three million dollars of investment – was stopped dead in 2015 by the former Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Ms. Houda Imène Feraoun, when he was about to be deployed ”, according to this survey.
The public operator Mobilis had finalized an m-payment module with the Portuguese leader in electronic banking, SIBS, which was already working with the National Bank of Algeria for the development of electronic banking.
Dramatic change at the end of 2015, when the Central Bank gave its approval for this option of m-payment, the minister dismisses the boss of Mobilis “under the pretext of signing a contract with Orange for roaming without referring to his supervision. », Recalls Emerging Maghreb.
“Former officials within the mobile operator are categorical: the objective of this decision is” to prevent the launch of mobile payment in Algeria to protect the new company Monetix, created by the Kouninef brothers, and its projects of development of electronic banking with the Post Office and other public banks through Satim ””, reports the specialized site.
“Its implementation, programmed more than four years ago, would have made it possible to bear fruit on a colossal investment in solutions, now obsolete, and for millions of Algerians to save on endless chains. [devant les guichets de la Poste], what is more, during a pandemic. It would even have allowed the Algerian state to quickly distribute Covid-19 compensation to eligible people, ”concludes the Maghreb Emerging survey.
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