The World Bank Group on Wednesday barred SoftTech IT Solutions and Services Ltd. (“SoftTech”), a Nigerian-based information technology solutions company for 50-months in connection with corrupt practices as part of the National Social Safety Nets Project in the country. The Bank equally barred the company’s Managing Director, Isah Salihu Kantigi for the same reason.
According to the Bretton Woods institution,
the suspension makes SoftTech and Kantigi, a Nigerian national, ineligible to
participate in projects and operations financed by the World Bank Group.
“They are the result of settlement
agreements under which the company and Mr. Kantigi acknowledge their
responsibility for the underlying sanctionable practices and agree to meet
specified corporate compliance conditions as a condition for release from
debarment,” the bank stated on its website.
The project is designed to provide access
to targeted cash transfers to poor and vulnerable households under an expanded
national social safety nets system.
According to the facts of the case, as an
individual consultant, Kantigi made “appreciation” payments to project
officials as a reward for his receiving of a Bank-funded consultancy services
contract.
Kantigi also entered into an arrangement
with other individual consultants and facilitated similar payments by them to
project officials, which according to the Bank constitutes a corrupt practice
under its Consultant Guidelines.
SoftTech, acting under the direction of its
Managing Director, Kantigi, served as the conduit through which he and the
other individual consultants made the payments to project officials.
Under the arrangement, SoftTech received
into its bank accounts multiple payments from the individual consultants and
then transferred the funds into the personal accounts of the project officials,
effectively serving as a financial intermediary for these consultants.
“This constitutes a corrupt practice under
the World Bank’s Anti-Corruption Guidelines.
“The settlement agreements provide for
reduced periods of debarment in light of Mr. Kantigi’s and SoftTech’s
cooperation and acknowledgment of the misconduct.”
As conditions for release from the sanction
under the terms of the settlement agreements, Kantigi has committed to
undertaking corporate ethics trainings that demonstrate a commitment to
personal integrity and business ethics, while SoftTech committed to
implementing a code of conduct that reflects the relevant principles set out in
the World Bank Group Integrity Compliance Guidelines and a corporate ethics
training program.
In addition, any affiliate that Kantigi or
SoftTech directly or indirectly controls, will be required to similarly
implement a Code of Conduct and corporate ethics training program.
Kantigi and the company also committed to
continue to fully cooperate with the World Bank Group Integrity Vice
Presidency.
“The debarments of Mr. Kantigi and of
SoftTech both qualify for cross-debarment by other multilateral development
banks (MDBs) under the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions
that was signed on April 9, 2010,” the Bank further stated.
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