Africa Confidential

From: Africa Confidential, Vol 41.18,  2000

ANGOLA

Social oil

Government officials unofficially promise to spend at least US$16 million of new oil money on social projects. This may be a first tangible sign of the state oil company Sonangols Social Bonus Fund, worth many tens of millions of dollars supposedly earmarked for social spending. The Fund benefits from secretive flows of money from oil companies; they have almost lost control of it and it risks becoming another vehicle for credit to the Angolan elite.

Some oil companies have also given money to a non-governmental organisation called ADPP, which runs orphanages and other social projects in Angola. ADPP is part of a cult-like empire called Tvind, overseen by a reclusive Dane called Mogens Amdi Petersen. Tvinds international offshoots, with names such as Humana, People to People, Planet Aid and UFF, have been investigated by Danish and British journalists; they make tens of millions of dollars annually by collecting donated clothes and selling them, in Angola and elsewhere, at commercial rates, even enjoying state subsidies. Tvinds new headquarters in Zimbabwe were opened by PresidentRobert Mugabe.

Chevron, in partnership with Elf and Agip, plus BP, has earmarked millions of dollars for ADPP, which calls Norsk Hydra, Ranger Oil, Conoco and Texaco project partners and whose website lists BP, De Beers, Elf, Odebrecht and Texaco as members of its general assembly. ADPPs links to Angolas elite run partly through the Fudao Eduardo dos Santos, a charity formed in 1996 to polish the image of Angolas President. Christine Messiant, a French academic, describes FESA as the ultimate fruit of state privatisation; the causes it has supported include beauty contests, the army and the police.

International companies could face major embarrassment from their dealings with ADPP and their failure to stand up to corrupt figures involved in supposed social welfare projects. A source in Angola said: The shit-fan interface on the ADPP front is a long way off compared to the immediate risk of offending Sonangol and losing the bid for the next (exploration) block.