Settlement Amount Resulting from World Bank/MIGA Mediation still Unpaid by Angola.

LetterAnaDias28Janeiro2002

 

IMG

 

June 8, 2009

His Excellency,

José Eduardo dos Santos

President of the Republic of Angola

Luanda,

 

Excellency,

 

I refer to the mediation proceedings regarding a dispute of an investment made in Cabinda by a Portuguese citizen, Mr. Carlos Dias, in the years 1991-93. The mediation started in 1997 and was undertaken with the support of the Portuguese government and conducted in the context of Articles 12(d)(iv) and 23(b)(i) of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Convention, which has been signed by both Angola and Portugal.

After numerous rounds of meetings held over several years between representatives of the Government of Angola and representatives of MIGA, her Excellency, the Minister of Planning, Mrs. Ana Dias Lourenço, orally advised the acting resident representative of the World Bank in Luanda and the principal counsel for Angola at MIGA in 2000 that, after having taken the matter to the President of the Republic on various occasions, he had decided to order settlement of the matter in question in the amount of one million five hundred thousand United States Dollars (U.S. $1,500,000), the sum previously agreed to between the Government of Angola and MIGA.

The Minister of Planning advised at the same time that the matter had been sent to the Ministry of Finance for payment. She asked the representatives of the World Bank and MIGA to contact his Excellency, the Minister of Finance, to be informed of the technical modalities to be used by the Ministry of Finance to effectuate payment.

Since then, the World Bank and MIGA, through their representatives, have attempted on numerous occasions, both through meetings and through letters, to obtain — unfortunately without success — from his Excellency, the Minister of Finance, information regarding the modalities of settlement of the matter. The most recent communication was sent by our resident representative on October 23, 2006 and it was never responded by her Excellency Mrs. Ana Dias Lourenço (copy attached for your reference).

As you can appreciate, after more than a decade the settlement payment that you ordered in favor of Mr. Carlos Dias has not materialized. Therefore, we send this letter to your Excellency to request your kind intervention to finally settle this long standing matter.

Thanks in advance for your kind attention to enable a final resolution of this important case.

Sincerely,

Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili.

Vice-President

Attachment: As stated.

  1. Minister of Planning

Minister of Finance