The Chairman of the National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, wrote a letter to the President of the Accounting Office stating in it: “According to your statement, a number of operating companies of the National Oil Corporation recently notified us that the tax authority had refused to register contracts with foreign companies, justifying this rejection by a circular issued by the Agent of the Accounting Office requesting them to not ratify any contracts concluded by the Government, its interests and bodies and institutions when they were worth 500,000,000 dinars or more, only after confirming the consent of the Accounting Office.”
He continued: “Although these companies continue with the authority and inform them that the circular as drafted does not include companies, the Opinion section of the Law Department in accordance with its advisory opinion of 2020/7/15 (as attached), in which article 6 From the implementing regulation of Act No. 6 on the Administration of Law, binds all parties to exclude contracts entered into by pre-monitoring companies, she responded by believing that contracts entered into by operators should not be subject to prior monitoring. But it is obliged, under the warning of the Accounting Office, to execute its instructions to not register contracts entered into by operators until it is confirmed that the approval of the Accounting Office is attached.”
Sanalla added that the Office stated that it did not recognize the opinion of the General Administration of Law and was not obliged to implement it. This position by the Accounting Office confounded the institution and its companies that relied on the opinion of the General Administration of Law and signed several contracts for the implementation of projects to increase production, maintain or develop surface equipment with international and local contractors, which included numerous mutual obligations Under which these companies will be required to compensate these contractors for all losses that may result from the failure to complete these contracts or the delay in their implementation, given that the subject of prior approval is an obligation that was not taken into account when requesting bids from these companies.
The delay in the implementation of these projects will result in asking these contractors to amend the prices offered by them and perhaps disassociate themselves from these contracts and demand compensation for the damages they incurred as a result of the termination of these contracts according to Sanalla.
Sanalla also said throughout his correspondence: “As the Accounting Office insisted on ignoring the opinion of the Law Department and its threat to the Tax Authority to not register contracts concluded by companies operating in the oil sector, so that we couldn’t understand its goals and dimensions. Therefore, the institution, in light of this intransigence, which we see as violating the law, declares that it is not responsible for the consequences that may result from the Bureau’s insistence on prior oversight and its disrespect for the opinion of the General Administration of Law in this regard to those contracts.”