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(Reuters) – METEC is Ethiopia\u2019s largest company \u2014 a sprawling military-run industrial conglomerate that has for years wielded significant influence in the economy and drawn suspicion from some that it is a vehicle for patronage by governing elites.<\/p>\n
Since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office in April and began pledging sweeping reforms \u2014 including curbing corruption \u2014 METEC has been under the microscope: the government canceled the company\u2019s contracts to build sugar and fertilizer plants. In August, the government ousted METEC from its contract to supply turbines for the nearly $5 billion Grand Renaissance Dam, citing lengthy delays.<\/p>\n
Over the past few days, Ethiopia’s attorney general Berhanu Tsegaye ordered the arrest of 29 current and former senior employees of METEC including the ex-head, Brigadier General Kinfe Dagnew, on suspicion of massive corruption. The attorney general said a months-long investigation had uncovered issues with procurement processes over the past six years involving more than $2 billion.<\/p>\n
Here is information on the company:<\/p>\n
98 COMPANIES<\/strong> It was established by government decree with an authorized capital of 10 billion Ethiopian birr \u2014 less than $400 million at the current exchange rate. It won a range of government contracts and grew quickly.<\/p>\n The conglomerate has 98 companies. Two of them manufacture military equipment. Dozens of others make civilian products including TVs, solar panels, trucks, construction machinery, plastic products and other goods.<\/p>\n METEC had more than 19,000 employees but it laid off 3,000 this year after the government fired it from several contracts.<\/p>\n KEY ROLE<\/strong> In 2011, the government awarded METEC contracts related to a dozen mega projects: the plan was for METEC to establish new industries and build factories and infrastructure before opening the companies up to private sector investment.<\/p>\n That has not happened.<\/p>\n In announcing the cancellation of METEC\u2019s turbine contact for a huge dam near the Sudanese border, Abiy drew attention to METEC\u2019s failure to deliver. \u201cIt is a project that was supposed to be completed within five years, but seven or eight years later not a single turbine is operational,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n CHANGES<\/strong> Days later, the canceling began canceling some of METEC\u2019s contracts, citing poor performance and delays.<\/p>\n In June, Abiy shuffled METEC\u2019s board and appointed, among others, the widow of Meles.<\/p>\n The following month, Abiy presented a proposal to split METEC into two parts: the subsidiaries involved in manufacturing military goods would be managed by the Defence Ministry, while the rest would continue together as a renamed National Industrial Engineering Corporation.<\/p>\n The proposal is still under review by the cabinet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" METEC is Ethiopia\u2019s largest company \u2014 a sprawling military-run industrial conglomerate that has for years wielded significant influence in the economy and drawn suspicion that it is a vehicle for patronage by governing elites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/metec-documentary.jpg?fit=1120%2C592&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-138Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250416"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252826,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250416\/revisions\/252826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMETEC, which stands for Metals and Engineering Corporation, was set up in 2010.<\/p>\n
\nFormer Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, in power from 1991 until his death in 2012, saw the conglomerate as critical to the centrally-planned economy and to a program to transform the country of 105 million people into a middle-income state by 2025 through investments in infrastructure and manufacturing.<\/p>\n
\nTwo weeks after the new PM took office in early April, METEC\u2019s CEO resigned after eight years.<\/p>\n