The Ethiopia government on Friday implicated Azeb Asnake, the former head of state-owned Electric Power Generation firm, Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation and Mulu Woldegebriel, the former deputy head of military-run industrial conglomerate Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC), on corruption charges related to the ongoing hydroelectric dam project, reported Reuters.
In an interview with Reuters, Attorney General office spokesman, Zinabu Tunu, said Asnake and Mulu were charged in connection to a 5.1 billion Ethiopian birr (about $159 million) contract awarded to METEC to clear a forest area where water from the dam on the Nile River is planned to flow.
Tunu said at least half of the money was wasted and the contract was never finalized. He revealed that nearly 50 other people, some of them former METEC officials and other employees of private companies involved in the contract, were charged along with the two senior officials.
When the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project was launched in 2011, the cost was estimated at four billion dollars and it was expected to provide electricity for Ethiopia’s population of more than 100 million.
In September 2018, Asnake was terminated as Executive Director of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation without any explanation. But at that time, there were rumors that she was removed from her position in connection with corruption. In 2017, Asnake was named as “the 2017 Power Generation Woman of the Year” for “advancing power generation in Ethiopia.”
The other accused Mulu, previously charged in a separate corruption case involving METEC, is currently in jail awaiting trial in that case.
The high-level corruption case is the latest undertaken by the government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who took office last year vowing to clean up state-owned firms and the military. He canceled many METEC contracts, including one related to the nearly $5 billion Grand Renaissance Dam.
The GERD, set to be Africa’s largest hydro-electric dam, measures 1.8 kilometers (1.1 miles) long and 145 meters (480 feet) high and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2020 and full operations by 2022.
