The scandal of the 1.5 billion US dollars not paid to the BRICS bank
On Saturday, July 22, Algeria Press Service, the government press agency reported that "The President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, affirmed that Algeria had officially requested to join the New BRICS Development Bank, with a first contribution of $ 1.5 billion". The information had, as soon as it was announced, shocked the Algerians who do not understand the need to "throw" such a sum into a banking organization of which they have never heard. Especially since the population is facing shortages of basic food products including milk, lentils, beans and rice which are "the food of the poor".
A month later, on August 24th, the shock was greater when it was announced that Algeria's application for membership of the group had been refused to the group composed of five emerging countries. Although the ordinary citizen does not understand anything about the major economic issues and the importance of this BRICS, the Algerians began to take an interest in it under the influence of a regular media bludgeon whose objective was to prepare them for "an unprecedented feat of the Algerian regime on the international scene".
However, what attracts the most attention of Algerians is by no means the refusal of their country's accession. They deride this decision and mockery is multiplying on social networks. Rather, it is the fate of the $ 1.5 billion that Tebboune says he paid as Algeria's first contribution to the BRICS bank.
The big lie of the $1.5 billion
According to Algerian financial experts, this $1.5 billion has never been paid to BRICS. "We are not at the post office bank where we drop by to deposit a check and continue on our way," one of them tells us. This sum, we are told, is an Algerian contribution to acquire shares in this bank. "This is not the way to become a shareholder in a bank regardless of its size," adds our interlocutor. "First, we would have to make a request, wait for the bank's Board of Directors to be held and it takes several months for the decision to be made to accept a shareholder and set the number of shares granted to him and the amount to be paid. It's a long process," he explains. And above all, you have to be a member of the BRICS. "You can't put the plow before the oxen," as the old saying goes.
It is in this sense that "the Minister of Finance, Laaziz Faid, met, Thursday, August 24, 2023 in Johannesburg (South Africa), with the president of the New Development Bank (NBD), Dilma Rousseff. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the ongoing BRICS Summit held in Johannesburg from August 21 to 24. The two sides discussed during this meeting "the file of Algeria's accession to the NBD, an international bank whose purpose is to support development projects in emerging countries", as announced on the website of the Algerian Ministry of finance. This is proof that there has never been a payment of the sum of 1.5 billion dollars.
One cannot help but wonder, therefore, "If Tebboune has lied once again to the Algerian people?" as a courtesy and "as a correction, I prefer to say that Tebboune was misled by his advisers about the NBD membership process and he thought that the transfer had been made," says one of the financial experts contacted about this.
It remains to be known for the Algerians "where did this sum go? "Did she stay in the state coffers or did she take another destination? "In a country where the rulers confuse their private bank accounts with the Algerian state coffers, there is something to worry about," our interlocutor tells us.