ESAT News
April 02, 2015
ESAT has confirmed from reliable sources that many secretly registered businesses, with no registered owners, have been trading for the past ten years inside the Bole International Airport, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia without renewing their contracts or paying rent to the government.
The sources said top government officials are involved in these businesses.
The businesses that are trading in these premises were expected to bid every five years according to the directive of the Airports Authority.
However, eight companies registered under a code name and seven other businesses have been trading without renewing their contracts.
In terminal two, a business registered under code AACS 02 sells print products in the shop located on an 54meter space and has been expected to pay 4, 374,000 birr for 10 years and another company with code registration AACS 07 Cultural Cousin was expected to pay a rental fee of 2,818, 800 birr for the past ten years although it is still not known where the rental fees have gone to.
Similarly, other businesses registered under code names AACS 22, AARS 12, AACS 21, AACS06, and AACS 16 have all not paid rental fees for the past ten years.
Although the owners of these businesses are not clearly known, sources say the owners are “certain government officials and their families who are above the law”.
Some of the businesses that have been trading inside the Airport for over five years without signing an agreement as per the new directive are London Café and Satellite Restaurant, Alfaraj Trading, Lalibela Goldsmith, and City Business Computer.
In general, as per the new directive, the ten year rental fee of these businesses that have been trading without signing legal agreements is worth 100,000,000 birr and the Airports’ Authority “has not been brave enough to take measures”.
ESAT has not been able to get the responses of the Ethiopian Airports’ Authority on the matter.