Houthis seize assets of foreign oil companies and taxes: Document

A document issued by the "Central Organization for Control and Accountability" in Sana'a, which is under the control of the Houthi militia, revealed a major corruption case represented in the seizure by their officials and field leaders of the assets of foreign oil companies recovered during the period 2015-2020.

The report issued for the month of February 2022, on the results of reviewing the procedures for receiving and disposing of some oil companies’ assets by the Ministry of Oil and Minerals, and the extent of conflicts between the Houthi senior leadership and the presence of major imbalances and abuses in the procedures for receiving and disbursing cars, generators and furniture, as some assets were directly disbursed at sites Companies to entities or persons without completing the import procedures and registering in the records, in a picture that reflects the extent of corruption carried out by the Houthi leadership

The report reflects part of the scene of chaos, absurdity and corruption in which the Houthi militia have flooded the country since their takeover of the capital, Sanaa, and several governorates in September 2014.

The report stated that some assets were disbursed as ownership to people, such as cars, generators, etc., and some of the assets received were spent randomly to other parties.

The report also referred to "criminal facts as a result of the audit results of the Tax Office in Sana’a Governorate for the fiscal year 2018, represented in the appearance of revolving amounts from previous years that represent local and central tax revenues collected by the collectors and were not transferred to the account of the Tax Authority in the Central Bank".

The report of the Executive Unit’s review of the general tax on Qat sales in the Capital for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 revealed that the actual tax proceeds were unrealistic compared to the size, value and quantities of Qat that pass through collection centers (the entrances to the Secretariat) and are sold in the Capital’s markets, as the report noted the low daily average For the value of the Qat quantities for which the tax was collected during the review period, which amounted to YR19 million per day, and the daily average of the collected tax amounted to YR3.8 million , which reflects that the difference is supplied to the accounts of specific Houthi leaders.