PwC Accused of Facilitating Mismanagement by Isabel dos Santos

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been identified as one of the subcontracted consultants by Ironsea/Mater, a company controlled by Isabel dos Santos and her associates, which received duplicate payments from Sonangol for the same consultancy services allegedly provided in the realization of the Sonangol transformation project.

The consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is accused by Angolan authorities of facilitating the mismanagement of Isabel dos Santos at Sonangol, having received 10.5 million dollars in consultancy fees during her tenure.

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According to the dispatch accessed by Lusa in which PwC is accused of influence peddling and qualified tax fraud, the consultant provided services over several years to various companies owned by Isabel dos Santos, while the head of PwC and partner, Sarju Raikundalia, was her financial administrator at the Angolan state oil company.

The consultant was also linked at the beginning of his career to Mario Leite da Silva, another associate of the Angolan businesswoman and manager in several of her companies.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Consultant

In addition to these supposed consultancy services, PwC also provided external audit services to Sonangol, “as a result of the existing trust relationship between them and the defendants Isabel dos Santos, Mario Silva, and Sarju Raikundalia,” according to the document consulted by Lusa.

The document mentions that PwC ”

covered up” all illicit actions carried out in the context of hiring Ironsea/Mater—a Dubai-based company to whom Sonangol made illicit payments—and enabled improper receipts in favor of PwC Portugal outside the country, despite PWC Angola being excluded from the tender held by Sonangol to audit the oil company’s accounts in 2016.

Sarju Raikundalia then allegedly acted with PWC to have the latter resubmit the proposal to Sonangol, with the administration led by the daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos favorably deliberating direct award to the consultant with the protest that costs would be reduced.

“PwC Angola, aware that it did not have the technical capacity to perform this service, without authorization from the Board of Directors, resorted to PwC Portugal which provided it with about 80% of its technicians,” the document reads.

Contract

On October 18, 2016, PwC, “in collusion with the defendants Isabel dos Santos and Sarju Raikundalia, hired PwC Portugal to provide the same auditing service, as well as an honorarium letter worth 3.9 million euros, of which PwC Angola received only 395,000 euros.

With this contract, PwC Angola and PwC Portugal became external auditors of Sonangol for the year 2016, while Sarju Raikundalia, who was previously a partner at PwC Angola, went on to coordinate the work carried out by the consultants, ignoring the existing conflicts of interest and lack of transparency and impartiality, the accusation emphasizes.

Furthermore, PwC Angola and PwC Portugal issued invoices to Sonangol with the same descriptors, leading to duplicate payments and illicit outflow of capital to the detriment of the oil company.

Regarding the audit reports, they were issued intentionally, “without reservation, in clear lack of independence and disregard for the blatant irregularities found,” including fraudulent payments to various entities.

Meanwhile, Sonangol opened in September 2017 a

limited tender by prior qualification for independent statutory external audit services for the period from 2017 to 2020, with the contract being recommended to PwC Portugal and PwC Angola.

However, the activities did not go forward, as they were dismissed on December 1, 2017, by the new board of directors, led by Carlos Saturnino, after Isabel dos Santos had been removed from her position, and whose complaints gave rise to the process that is expected to go to trial soon.

During the tenure of Isabel dos Santos at the helm of the state oil company, PwC received 10.5 million dollars (about 10 million euros) under contracts for the provision of audit services.