The new Chief Executive of Angolan state oil firm Sonangol, Isabel dos Santos (photo), has postponed all discussion concerning the sale of assets owned by the company.According to the Chief Executive in a statement, the company’s board has also removed the legal department's obligation to handle anything other than disciplinary matters.

Isabel dos Santos was appointed to Sonangol in June with instructions to increase the competence of the company.That same month, she announced plans to farm out Sonangol's non-core assets, like its banking, real estate and airline interests, into separate holding companies to bring the company's attention back to oil.Boston Consulting Group and PriceWaterhouseCoopers have been employed as external advisers to the reorganization, which has been approved by international oil companies active in Angola.

The new Chief Executive also revealed intentions to develop transparency at Sonangol, which has for a long time been considered as one of the most incomprehensible institutions in Africa.In 2011, the company was suspected of losing $32 billion in oil revenues allocated to the government.

However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) later said it had succeeded in hunting down the missing money, thereby ascribing the accounting disagreement to quasi-fiscal operations carried out on behalf of the government, Reuters reports.

Anita Fatunji