Phosphate company restores JD20m of ‘graft money’

AMMAN — The Jordan Phosphate Mining Company (JPMC) and contractor companies on Sunday signed a settlement deal under which the company restored JD20 million in “graft money”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The agreement, signed at the Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (JIACC), is related to financial, technical and administrative violations that led to wasting shareholders’ money, according to Petra.

JIACC was quoted by Petra, as announcing it had conducted 44 probes that led to identifying the amount (JD20 million) that was illegally gained by the contractors in the period between 2007 and 2012.

In the first phase, the JIACC came to conclusive results that JD2 million was wasted as a result of corrupt practices by the construction contractors. It immediately referred the entire case to the prosecution department. 

The companies involved offered JD2 million as compensation, however, the JIACC insisted on retrieving the entire wasted amount, the agency said. 

The funds will be paid back by the companies in installments over 36 months, said Petra. 

The mining company has managed to cut down on losses in 2017 by almost 50 per cent to reach JD46.6 million from JD90 million in 2016, JPMC Chairman Mohammad Thneibat said late last month. 

This had been possible, he said, through several measures that the company has taken to deal with a “sharp” decline in the prices of phosphate and its products.