The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has fired pot shots at the Australian equivalent of the CBN, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), on the alleged bribery of Nigerian officials in the 2006 polymer bank-note deal.
In an interview with The Age, an Australian newspaper, published today, Mr. Sanusi wondered what the RBA was doing allowing its subsidiaries to spray bribes around, alluding that both the bribe givers and the takers are culpable. Mr Sanusi also raised questions over reports of payments into off shore accounts by Securency International Pty Ltd, which is part-owned by the RBA.
There are indications that more than $10 million dollars may have been paid by the Australian company into bank accounts in tax havens, to be used as ‘commissions’ to secure the contract to print new bank notes for Nigeria.
It has been alleged that CBN officials played a role or took a share of the bribe money from the Australian company to secure the contract.
The Nigerian bribe takers
In the interview with The Age newspaper, which first broke the story, Mr. Sanusi said, unravelling the identities of the bribe takers in Nigeria will be the next stage in the investigation process. No Nigerian names have yet been mentioned as having collected bribes. The deal to print the notes took place during the tenure of the immediate past governor of the CBN, Chukwuma Soludo.
“At the moment we are watching. So far, there are no specific indications as to who precisely [in Nigeria] is the object of these allegations,” Mr. Sanusi said. “My sense is that this investigation will need to be triggered by some concrete information showing that Nigerian officials benefited financially from any aspect of the polymer contract,” he added.
While individual names are yet to be mentioned, there are indications that Securency may have involved a Nigerian shipping company as well as some influential Nigerians in the deal.
The investigations
The bribery scandal which involves Australia and Nigeria, is being investigated by the two countries. Last week, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) contacted Nigerian security agencies seeking cooperation on the investigation.
An official of the Nigerian anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) confirmed to NEXT that the agency had begun inquiring into the deal that helped Securency win a contract to supply at least 1.9 billion pieces of its patented product, Guardian®, on which four of Nigeria’s bank notes are printed.
“We are looking into it. We are trying to get facts and documents on the matter. If you have any, you can send it to us,” the official who spoke on condition of anonymity said.
Speaking on behalf of the commission, the spokesman of the EFCC, Femi Babafemi, declined to go into the details of the investigation. “It is attracting our attention,” was all Mr. Babafemi said.
The CBN also confirmed to NEXT that investigations into the allegations had started. Mohammed Abdullahi, the spokesman of the CBN said “work [investigation] is going on. As soon as the investigation is over, we will let you know,” he said.
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