(EFE News Service Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Thursday it is not responsible for alleged irregularities in the management of this Caribbean nation’s only fuel refinery, which is jointly owned by the Dominican government and the multinational but administered by Shell.
Dominican government auditors found that the Shell managers running the Refidomsa facility have been shortchanging consumers and the state, Listin Diario newspaper reported Wednesday.
The auditor-general’s office, which reviewed operations at the refinery for the 3 1/2 years ending May 31 of this year, said in a posting on its Web site that Shell managers engaged in at least a dozen questionable transactions during the period.
But Shell said Thursday that all of the decisions questioned by the auditors were made by Refidomsa’s board, which is evenly divided between representatives of the Anglo-Dutch oil giant and the Dominican government.
Hence, Shell said, it is up to Refidomsa to respond to the report from the auditors.
Listin Diario said Wednesday that during the period studied, 18.7 percent of Refidomsa’s purchases were from Shell Western Supply & Trading, a Barbados-based affiliate of the multinational firm.
The auditors also found at least two instances where Shell managers overstated what Refidomsa paid for purchases on the spot market, resulting in higher prices at the pump for consumers and less revenue for the Dominican government.
The audit was undertaken in June after President Leonel Fernandez’s administration accused the Shell executives running Refidomsa of keeping fuel prices “artificially” high.
In a statement released before the audit began, Shell called the allegations unfounded and “defamatory,” saying that the government was trying to scapegoat the company for high fuel prices.
Fernandez said last month that his government will seek to purchase Shell’s 50 percent of Refidomsa if the multinational follows through with plans to shed its assets in the Caribbean country.
Shell, which began operations in the Dominican Republic in 1929, is the country’s main fuel distributor.
December 20, 2007
Copyright 2007 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc., Source: The Financial Times Limited
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/12/20/3180286.htm
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
