The Gafsa phosphates affair has been causing reactions to the chain for years. President Kais Saïed has repeatedly attacked those who block phosphate production, pointing the finger at the MEMBER who cloaks himself in his parliamentary immunity to hinder the transport of this product. At the same time, he assured us that he would forcefully tackle these dubious practices.
In this context, the spokesman of the judicial and financial pole Mohsen Daly announced, in a statement to the Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) agency, this Thursday, August 12, 14 officials have been taken into custody and that two three people are wanted.
70 million dinars of loss
To get more details about this case, “JDD Tunisia” contacted the president of the Observatory “Raqabah”, Imed Daimi, who had filed a complaint about this case a year ago.
Daimi also said that the case concerns the extraction and transfer of 600,000 tonnes of phosphate from the Meknassi mine to Sidi Bouzid between 2013 and 2019 through suspicious transactions, noting that this case is one of four cases related to corruption in the phosphate sector.
Daimi explained that several suspicions were related to the agreement with regard to the process of sorting and selecting winners, and that after the expiry of the contractual period between the companies and the Ministry of Industry, the operating period was extended without resorting to new contracts in accordance with the requirements of the decree on public procurement. This caused a dead weight loss to the company of 70 million dinars.
From an economic point of view, the economist Ridha Chkondali explained to “JDD Tunisia” that phosphate makes it possible to obtain at least one billion dinars each year. The interruption of phosphate production has led to heavy losses, which is considered a crime against the Tunisian people, who have deprived them of financial resources devoted to infrastructure and job creation in the mining basin area. »
This case is likely to have many twists and turns given the qualities of the people involved and the connection of others in recent years.
Rifi-JDD
