By Katrina Manson and Tom Burgis in London

A Somali minister wrote to Michael Howard last year requesting “financial support” from the UK oil company which is chaired by the former Conservative party leader and whose payments to Somali officials are now at the centre of a fraud squad investigation.

The letter, a copy of which has been seen by the Financial Times, raises fresh questions about the British peer’s oversight of Soma Oil & Gas, a company in which he holds a near 4 per cent stake.

Earlier this week it emerged that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office was examining payments made by Soma to the government of war-ravaged Somalia as part of a criminal investigation into alleged corruption.

Soma agreed to pay $580,000 for “capacity building arrangements” at Somalia’s ministry of petroleum, involving funding the salaries of individuals contracted to work for the department. The company is currently negotiating terms with Somalia’s ministry of petroleum that would give it the right to pump oil should the company find commercial quantities along the east African seaboard, touted as the next big frontier for oil and gas.

UN investigators, who filed a confidential report to the UN Security Council on the matter on August 3, said the arrangement created “a serious conflict of interest, in a number of cases appearing to fund systematic pay-offs to senior ministerial officials”, according to a copy of the report seen by the Financial Times. Soma denies any wrongdoing.

Lord Howard is due to speak to the SFO as part of its investigation, although Soma has previously said “the SFO have confirmed that no suspicion whatsoever attaches to Lord Howard arising from the business of Soma”.

Read more: Somalia corruption probe: minister asked Lord Howard for funding

Source: FT