Hélder Pitta Grós, who was speaking to the press on the sidelines of the celebration of the International Day against Corruption, which takes place on Saturday, responded to Lusa about this case, highlighting that Angola has been working with the Swiss justice system in other cases and that the two countries have signed a cooperation protocol.
"We always have good channels of cooperation between the two countries", highlighted Hélder Pitta Grós, adding that, if they receive a letter rogatory from Switzerland, the Angolan justice system will cooperate.
"Our obligation is to carry out the necessary investigations that they request, because the letter of request is usually concrete, specific, says what they want, and as soon as they send it to us we will see what they want, we will investigate and we will send the results that we achieve. It is our obligation and there must be cooperation in both directions, as they have also taken this care and have, in fact, helped us a lot", he said.
Asked whether this process could give new impetus to another involving former Angolan vice-president Manuel Vicente, the PGR said it preferred to wait for the letter of request and see.
At issue is a process involving the Trafigura group, a company present in Angola and partner of Mota-Engil in a consortium for the concession of the Lobito Corridor, with a view to operating and maintaining rail freight transport between Lobito and Luau for 30 years, accused by Swiss justice of having bribed public officials in Angola.
The executive director of Trafigura, one of the world's largest players in the trade of raw materials, denies the accusations of the Swiss authorities, who intend to take a former Angolan politician and two former directors of the multinational to court.
According to the Swiss Attorney General's indictment, "a former Angolan official is accused of having accepted, between April 2009 and October 2011, bribes of more than 4.3 million euros and 604 thousand dollars [559.5 thousand euros], of the Trafigura group, related to its activities in the oil industry in Angola".
The process also involves the former executive director of Trafigura Mike Wainwright and a former consultant from the DT Group (a 'joint venture' in which the Swiss company held a stake).
Quoted in a statement sent to Lusa, Trafigura's executive president and CEO, Jeremy Weir, lamented the "incidents" that "violated Trafigura's code of conduct" and highlighted the efforts made to "instill a culture of responsible conduct" in the company.
In the indictment, Swiss judicial authorities say that the corruption scheme involving Trafigura in Angola may have benefited the Swiss company by 143.7 million dollars, as it unduly won freight and ship supply contracts between June 2009 and July 2010.
