By Ugo Jim-Nwoko
There is no gainsaying that the Nigerian procurement system has been thoroughly abused by the multinational companies and international businesses in Nigeria; opening up a lot of shortcomings in our judicial system and questioning the capacity of our government to enforce our laws particularly when foreign institutions are involved.
One of the major achievements of the second lap of President Obasanjo’s government in Nigeria 2003 to 2007, was the conception and passage of the Public Procurement Act, which was signed into law by late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua. The essentials of the Act were that it would sanitise our corruption-ridden procurement system, and enthrone a regime of transparency, value for money and competitiveness.
Though some of the cases in question here were committed before the enactment of the Act, it is so glaring that by recent revelations , the operations of multi-national companies in Nigeria will make it very difficult for Public Procurement Act 2007 to be effectively implemented in Nigerian to enable it bear its intended fruits. From Siemens, a German telecommunications company operating in Nigeria through Julius Berger Plc, another German construction giant to Shell Petroleum, Wilbros and Halliburton, United States oil service corporations; it is a long story of procurement abuses, contract deals, bribes and settlements. The implication of all these is that the Nigerian state is a corrupt one that thrives on shady deals and cesspool of frauds and bribes”for- contracts.
Of particular interest is the Halliburton Procurement scandal, in which it was found that Halliburton and its subsidiaries in Nigeria paid $180 million in bribes to win a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract. The Nigerian government had moved to prosecute Dick Cheney, the former Vice-President of the United States of America for his involvement in the Halliburton contract deals in Nigeria.
The Nigerian people had been excited with the idea of bringing the United States former Vice-President to book, as it would have sent a new message to the world about us and our country .We had thought that this would have been an opportunity to teach a great lesson to foreigners doing businesses in Nigeria and a serious signal to the international community that their nationals and companies that they cannot come to Nigeria and abuse our procurement systems and still go free. The Nigerian people had also expected that this would have served as an opportunity to call the attention of international rating agencies and transparency watchers, who easily brand us as corrupt and fraudulent to the fact that the international community and respected nations of the world and their businesses were major contributors to the bad image Nigeria had earned as a result of corruption in high places.
Contrary to this expectation, what Nigerians are hearing now is that Nigeria has again entered into a deal with the United States of America. Nigerian government has agreed to an offer made by Halliburton to pay fines totaling up to $250 million. That’s why the EFCC has withdrawn the charges against the former US President. Nigeria had also entered into deals with Siemens, Julius Berger and so many others. For instance, Julius Berger PLC, which has made a name for itself due to its competence in civil engineering works in Nigeria, has pleaded guilty of distributing the Halliburton and Siemens bribes to Nigerian public figures and top shots. This was after series of wobbly denials. Julius Berger pleaded guilty of being an accessory and conduit for distributing bribes to top government officials in respect of Siemens and Halliburton scandals and has agreed to pay Nigeria $29.5 million in settlement. This is an outcome of plea bargain entered into with the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke (SAN) in two installments.
The danger to the enforcement of our laws here is that with this reign of plea bargains, the Public procurement law will play the role of making money for Nigeria without a corresponding effect in terms of punishment for offenders, beyond the payment of fines .That Chief Bode George is in prison, serves the public Procurement Act and the Nigerian procurement system better than billions of fines that are being paid to the Nigerian government for the several procurement abuses committed by corporate bodies and foreign nationals.
Ugo Jim-Nwoko, Public Finance researcher and member, Centre for Social Justice, wrote from Plot 17 flat 2 Yaounde Street, Wuse zone 6, Abuja.
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