Adolphe Moudiki, the head of Cameroon’s National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH), announced that some of the corporation’s managers and employees will face a UK court over alleged bribery linked to Swiss commodity trader Glencore.
Moudiki, who had previously denied any involvement by SNH staff, revealed late Friday that certain employees have been identified as suspects and will appear in a British court on September 10, 2024.
In June 2022, Glencore’s UK subsidiary admitted to seven counts of bribery at a London court, related to oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan.
Recently, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged Glencore’s former head of oil, Alex Beard, with two conspiracies involving corrupt payments to government officials and employees of state-owned oil companies in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Moudiki expressed support for the legal proceedings against those involved in the corruption, stating that SNH welcomes the progress in addressing the scandal. He did not specify how many SNH employees were implicated.
Glencore’s UK subsidiary has confessed to paying 7 billion CFA francs ($11 million) in bribes to SNH officials and others between 2011 and 2016 to gain preferential access to oil.
Cameroonian anti-corruption lawyer Akere Muna criticized SNH for not disclosing the identities of the involved staff and called for the suspension of all dealings with Glencore.
Muna, a former vice-chairperson of Transparency International, emphasized that since the corruption occurred in Cameroon, the solution should come from within the country, not from London.
Cameroon’s state anti-corruption commission began investigating the bribery in July 2022 but has not provided further updates. SNH, a state-owned entity, handles the sale of the state’s share of crude oil production on the international market.
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