Ethiopian Airlines will inaugurate two of its big projects today in the presence of high government officials and invited guests. The Addis Ababa Bole International Airport has been expanded to triple in size and can accommodate 22 million passengers annually. The newly expanded airport terminal has been renovated with amenities and high-tech systems. Moreover Ethiopian Airline’s luxurious five-star hotel will open its doors today, Sunday January 27. Ethiopian Skylight Hotel rests on 40,000sqm and boasts 373 rooms, including 27 high standard deluxe presidential and executive suites, four restaurants one of which will be the largest Chinese restaurant in Africa, and a huge conference and banquet hall accommodating over 2,000 guests at a time.
Ministry of Mines to oversee oil distribution
A draft regulation would establish a director level department at the Ministry of Mines to solely control and supervise the distribution and illegal trade of petroleum.
If the draft regulation is approved by the Council of Ministers a truck that unloads benzene or kerosene at the wrong destination will be automatically confiscated and the petroleum in the truck will be sold and the money will be taken by the government.
A source at the trade office told Capital that the regulation will help fight petroleum contraband which is currently widespread in the country. 
“The main problem is there is not a serious department in the trade bureau solely responsible for supervising petroleum. The idea is allow each region and administration to have a department that works on this. They will easily be able to identify the specific trucks assigned to the specific depot.”
However, some fear the new regulation may violate the rights of oil companies.
“We understand the government’s concern but what if a gas station has not paid its last debt of gas, then we will be in difficult situation unloading another tank of gas for it. This will not allow us to have them unload the gas at another station.”
The oil companies are regulated by the three institutions directly and by many other government bodies indirectly, and which many industry insiders agree to be the main reason for many problems that have been occurring for a long time.
Oil companies agree that there is no efficient service in the Djibouti depot where about four days will be consumed for one vehicle to load the oil. Ethiopia uses Sudan and Djibouti depots to distribute its four types of oil but the Sudanese one takes a very small amount.
National Oil Company (NOC), Yetebaberut Petroleum, Total, and Oil Libya take the highest share of oil distribution in Ethiopia.
NBE receiving paltry gold deposits
Widespread contraband trade, political instability in gold mining regions, and a need for a better system to stop corruption are being blamed for a decreasing amount of gold going into the National Bank of Ethiopia’s reserve (NBE).
NBE, which has branches in Gold Mining regions, now receives less than 50 grams of gold per day. That amount was 10 to 25 KG a year ago. The bank also received less than USD 90 million in the last fiscal year but some years ago that figure was USD 600 million.
The Bank’s gold buying branches in Shire, Dema, Gambela, Mizan Tepi, Pawi, Assosa, Hawassa, and Shakiso sometimes go two or three days a week without a transaction.
The sector currently is led by traditional miners. Major companies including MIDROC have stopped extracting gold because of political instability in the areas they are operating.
The gold was extracted and explored by 170 small companies. They were PLC licensed and around 50 percent of these firms are foreign companies, while 25 percent of them are joint ventures between local and foreign businesses and the remaining are local enterprises.
According to Ministry of Mines and Energy illegal gold trading helps some businesspeople move their money out of the country and some government employees are also collaborating with these illegal actors.
Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia are the destinations for the gold which illegally passes the country’s borders.
The Ministry is worried about the problem. They wrote a letter to the PM to host a meeting and discuss the matter with gold and petroleum stakeholders.
The Ministry’s Head of Communications, Micheal Mengesha, said “we can’t continue like this, the oil and gold market is in big trouble. As a ministry we are restructuring our office to add more workers to fill our deficit, but the discussion with the PM is very necessary to go further.’’
“The security system should be tightened to protect miners in the mining areas, big companies should return to their work and the black market must be controlled soon; we must work together’’ he added.
A source at the National Bank told Capital that the Ministry should add more workers in the mining areas to control the system.
“The ministry and the regions are very reluctant to assign the right staff in the mining areas but if you don’t have enough resources, you can’t stop crime’’ the source added.
Over 1.5 million artisanal miners are working in the country.
The gold collected from artisanal miners is processed by NBE and then sent to Switzerland for refining to be sold on the global market.
Former top officials arrested
Former top government officials, Bereket Simon and Tadesse Kassa appeared at the Amhara Regional State Court, under suspicion of wasting USD 90 million. The charge is damaging the public’s interest.
A 51 percent share of Dashen Brewery was sold to Duet Investment Group, a UK company, in 2012 for USD 90 million. Prosecutors say this was lost from the account of the subsidiary TIRET.
At the moment of the transaction, the two suspects were top officials both at the brewery and the conglomerate, according to regional prosecutors. Bereket Simon was a board chairman of Tiret Corporate and Tadesse was a CEO of the conglomerate. Both were members of the board of the brewery, claimed the prosecutor.
Prosecutors requested more time for further investigation of the brewery and the conglomerate.
Tiret, which was established in 1995 with 26.1 million birr capital, has its headquarters in Addis Ababa. This brought the jurisdiction into question.
Prosecutors opposed this because the wasted money is in Amhara regional state where the company is located, and its employees are.
The endowment was established with the funds raised from the former Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) and 25 other founding members and it has various companies under its umbrella including Kombolcha Textile Company, Ambasel Trading House Plc, Belesa Logistics and Transit, Zeleke Agricultural Mechanization Plc and Tikur Abay Transport Plc.
The suspects said they should be granted bail because of their health condition and concerns about security in the prison that they are being kept. Berket stated that he was insulted by youth while being investigated and added that he has a mistrust in the rule of law in the Amhara Regional State. He also asked why their case was not seen on January 24, 2019, stating that they were told they would appear.
Prosecutors responded that case was not seen on Thursday as the file was not presented to the court.
Bereket Simon was a former communications minister and a top government official on various boards including the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
The court has reviewed the investigation file of the prosecutors and after hearing the two parties adjourned the case until February 8, 2019, while ordering the security to be tight in the prison the suspects are kept in.
