Philia's Refined Ventures in Brazzaville
Report Public Eye (formerly BD), 2015
How Swiss traders misappropriate Congolese oil rents
This report presents the findings of an investigation led by the Berne Declaration (BD) (Today Public Eye) into the business relations between Philia, a Geneva-based trading company, and Coraf, the Republic of the Congo’s state-owned oil refinery. drawing from an exclusive set of source documents, we show how Philia has benefitted from abnormally favourable clauses detailed in its «term contract to export fuel oil» with Coraf. This contract, granted without a public tender process, was signed by the Congolese President’s son, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso – a notoriously corrupt figure. The stakes are huge for the Congolese population: oil is the primary source of national revenue for Congo, a country plagued by the resource curse.