Design of Empreendimento Comandante Gika
Grupo Gema has been one of the fastest-growing private initiatives over the past few years in Angola. It controls part of the drinks market in Angola through its partnership with SABMiller in Coca-Cola Luanda Bottling, and through its role in Ucerba, which is a major shareholder in the country’s biggest breweries: Cuca, Nocal and Eka. In the petroleum sector the group, through its subsidiary Geminas, is in partnership with the Brazilian multinational Petrobrás, the Sino-Angolan Sonangol Sinopec International, Falcon Oil and the Angolan state company, Sonangol, in the exploration of Block 18/06. In construction, Grupo Gema is a partner with Edifer, one of the biggest Portuguese firms in the sector, in EdiferAngola and Construções Fortaleza; it also has a joint-venture with the Portuguese company Escom, part of the Espírito Santo group, and with Camargo Corrêa in the Palanca Cimento project. Grupo Gema also has stakes in the automobile market, through its company Vauco, which represents General Motors, Peugeot and Honda in Angola.
The company is composed mainly of public office holders and their families whose positions have allowed complete access to state resources, and have allowed them to have a say in the government’s decisions on privatisation, foreign investments and support for the private business sector.
This investigation deals first of all with the group’s shareholding structure, detailing the blending of state power and private interests by its shareholders. Second, it situate the growth in Grupo Gema’s interests with various decisions by the Council of Ministers, whose secretary is a shareholder in the group, as well as with various laws that define the relationship between public duty and private interest.
This research does not claim to have a judicial character, and nor does it claim to be an exhaustive treatment of the legal, political and socio-economic questions surrounding Grupo Gema and its shareholders. It does, however, call attention to the ample provisions in Angola law to ensure a clear separation between public duty and private interest. Grupo Gema is the first of a series of companies that will be researched in this way.
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In previous investigations I have examined at how members of the Angolan government went into partnership with the multinationals Castel Group and SABMiller in order to gain control of the drinks market in the country. This article looks at the case of UNICER, the main beverage manufacturer in Portugal.
It has become common practice for Angolan Members of Parliament to set up commercial companies with members of the government and with foreign investors for personal gain, in the same way that they have done with state contracts. This practice potentially creates situations that prevent them from conducting their duties as parliamentarians, as well as conflicts of interest and influence peddling. In short, it risks making corruption an institution inside parliament.