Parliament ultimatum on oil deal [Archives:2004/739/Front Page]

Mohammed Al-Qadhi
The Yemeni parliament has given the government a 2-week ultimatum to call off the oil deal. The Yemeni parliament succeeded last month in thwarting an illegal government agreement to sell 60% of its stake in Yemeni oil fields. Prime Minister Abdulqader Bajamal was supposed to be summoned before Parliament to reply to their questions with regard to the oil deal. The Parliament recommended on Saturday that the government should cancel the oil deal and that people involved in the sale should be held accountable. It said that the deal is a sort of corruption and a waste of public money. It decided on Monday to give the government a two week ultimatum to implement its recommendation or it said MPs would vote in favor of a withdrawal of confidence. However, Bajamal insisted that the deal will not be called off and threatened to resort to the Constitutional Court, according to a reliable source.
The Ministry of Oil signed a contract with an investor in which it sold 60% of the oil in field No. 53 at $13 million per year while its annual revenue reached $ 20 million. It denied that the bargain was against the law and stated that it was in favor of Yemen. However, MPs said it would have caused Yemen to lose YR 37 billion, had it been implemented.
It was reported that some MPs tried to interfere to defuse the problem between the government and Parliament, suggesting that the government calls off the deal and that the MPs will keep a close eye on the question of holding the officials behind the deal accountable, but Bajamal refused.
Political observers have seen the latest confrontation between the government and Parliament as a kind of a game played by the big guys at the power center in order to bring an end to this government, which is expected to take place in the upcoming few weeks.
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