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The Halliburton and
anti-corruption war
UCHE IFEDIBA
SOMETIME
last year the bad news was broken that Halliburton, an oil services firm on a
Nigeria Liquefied Gas project gave $180 million, about N25 billion, bribe to
some unnamed Nigerian officials. The unfortunate giving and taking - both
criminal offences-involved citizens of two nations, namely the United States of
America and Nigeria. In the one, some officials of a private company were
involved and in the other, some public or government officials. Usually,
government is expected to serve as the veritable coordinator of all
socio-political and economic activities of any country. It plays, more or less,
the role of an umpire in private-sector driven economies by laying down the
rules and monitoring compliance. But where some personages of government are
corrupt, no matter what they want others to believe in the contrary, it cannot
adequately play this role.
Certainly Nigeria was more
adversely affected than the foreign firm or America in the degradative scam and
was thus supposed to handle it with a greater sense of urgency. Like in the
lurid act of illicit sex in which the woman is at a greater risk, for everything
takes place inside her while the man uses a mere projection of his body -
apologies to Chinua Achebe - these foreign business men simply jetted into
Nigeria with their brief cases containing no millions. Firstly the scandal took
place in the country. Her laws were subverted and her national institutes
manipulated by foreigners in collaboration with Nigerians. Again, the people
allegedly involved are supposed to be at the country’s helm of affairs.
This N25 billion lost through one
project alone could have effectively been used to solve the major ecological
problems of the country like erosion and desertification or even the water
problem of about a half of the country. It can also cover two years budgets of
some states. Of course, this could only be if the said fund is prudently
utilised and not further subjected to pilgering. Again the Liquefied Natural Gas
project should be within the Petroleum ministry, which is currently under the
Presidency. And this government has declared war against corruption. But why
these connections could not evoke enough dissuasive fear in those self-seeing
officials is quite stunning. The alleged slush fund might have been paid at a
less prominent rung of the contractual undertaking. But the Petroleum ministry
and invariably the Presidency should have been able to have an estimate of what
would accrue to government through a transaction of that magnitude. As a matter
of necessity, each ministry should adopt a conservation and management strategy
specifically to monitor all its projects and activities of the contractors
handling them, from the awarding stage through payment of tax, to practical
project execution. Through such pro-active institutional logistics, which may
involve inter-ministerial interactions, tremendous sharp practices could be
curtailed.
But what has the federal
government done since then? If not for the American side, this scandal would
have perhaps gone unnoticed. A secretive inquiry was said to be going on, the
report of which is yet to be released. But the Halliburton firm and the American
authorities have acted swiftly and decisively. Recently the oil company has
dismissed two of its executives fingered in the criminal conduct. And the
American justice Department, Securities and Exchange Commission, etc are still
working tirelessly to establish the extent of involvement of their nationals in
the scandal.
It was believed that the
petroleum ministry was placed under the presidency to ensure proper management
and a more effective performance given the import of the ministry’s role in
national economy. But aside from the likes of Halliburton scandal, the
performance of this vital sector in the last five years has not shown the
managerial bent expected of the highest office. It must be admitted that fuel
availability is now more reliable than before the Obasanjo administration came
in. However, a lot still needs to be done in the pricing system, performance of
the refineries and the way our deregulation policy is currently being pursued.
A lot in the petroleum sector
still seems to be shielded in mystifying secrecy. For instance, which companies
import fuel for the NNPC and who owns them? What were the criteria-for their
selection? Proper deregulation does not mean transferring the monopoly hitherto
enjoyed by public corporations to one or two private companies owned by the
highly connected without allowing for competition. Competition can only take
place if the basic requirements for participation are set and any firm that
meets those requirements is free to take part in the business. Restricting the
deal to only the favoured is an anti-people kind of regulation worse than the
one apparently being fought. It is only through competition that the quality of
products and services could steadily improve and market forces could determine
prices. But in Nigeria today petroleum product prices are largely determined in
the boardroom, and government ruthlessly enforces them.
Perhaps Nigeria has one or two
lessons to learn from Halliburton and America on how to really fight corruption.
Nigeria that lost both money and prestige in the deal is yet to do much about
it. But America pays attention to ethics. Is it not possible that after
frolicking with the Nigerian officials without being punished the Halliburton
culprits and their likes could gradually introduce into the American system some
modicum of the unethical conducts they had learnt from the Nigerian officials?
So they had to be stopped in time. The message being sent to the rest of the
world could, among other things, be that any alien that has done some high level
business in Nigeria might need some kind of re-orientation on getting back home
so as to be purged of the unpalatable tricks they might have learnt from some of
our officials.
This scandal has also brought to
the fore the embarrassing fact that it is impossible to do some right things or
engage in certain legitimate businesses in Nigeria without being dragged into
unethical corporate practice. For instance, you cannot clear your genuine goods
out of our seaports even with all the required documents without giving bribe;
no "Danfo" commercial bus can load at, say, Oshodi, and discharge at
Orile-less than 30 minutes journey - without being forced to give bribes at
about 3 different points even when it has not contravened any traffic
regulation; in about nine out of ten petrol stations in the country when you pay
for ten litres of fuel what you get is about eight litres, and so on. These
swindling and extortion happen everyday. As you read this piece they are going
on. Government does nothing to stop them. Thus the unchecked swinish attitudes
are fast becoming a tradition. Government agencies are incharge of every
department of our national affairs. But most of their workers are the ones that
go about encouraging people to break the law so they could receive inducements.
This attitude calls to mind Justice Chukwudifu Oputa’s assertion that society
creates crime only for the criminal to commit.
Recently, the ministry of finance
told the world that our state governors engage in illegal transfer of public
funds into private accounts overseas. Some governors have reacted vehemently
against the sweeping generalisation, asking the government to name those
involved. And about eight governors have been pencilled down for questioning by
the EFCC. The ministry must be praised for being daring enough to talk about the
devilry of the highly placed. But what it said was no news per se, for many have
doubted the sincerity of purpose of the incessant overseas trips of government
officials. The news, however, is that it had chosen to be selective. The
pronouncement was criminally silent on what goes on at the federal level, like
this Halliburton saga, which majority of Nigerians had heard of from abroad.
Perhaps the main purpose served by that statement is that it has confirmed to
Nigerians the destination of a large part of the trillions of naira budgeted
yearly for their well being and the untold problems this implies in the growth
of the economy. It also answers the conundrum of persistent high cost and
scarcity of foreign exchange in the country since the inception of this
administration. Nobody is supposed to be surprised any longer that those huge
sums budgeted and apparently spent have not been able to improve the economic
and social positions of our people. However, the admission that this financial
crime is going on, without anything serious done to stop it or punish the
culprits, leaves no one in doubt that Nigeria is now more corrupt than before.
Moreover, not implementing budgets while earning extra revenue and not adding
the unused revenue to subsequent year’s national income, which has been in
vogue for over four years now, is capable of fanning the embers of corruption.
Corruption cannot be fought
effectively by sweeping celebrated cases of the evil scheme under the carpet or
pretending that they don’t exist. In the Halliburton case, the federal
government has delayed for too long. The investigation should have been
concluded before now and all the officials involved in it should have since been
punished, all the money recovered and all the corrective and punitive measures
taken made public. It is possible that sharp practices of that magnitude had
been going on and has continued.
Corrupt practices are still
carried out in the open on the streets, in government offices, in the
legislature, in the school and so on. Starting the fight from the highest levels
could perhaps offer a realistic new beginning. Only by so doing could we
sustainably improve on the way we are regarded. Otherwise all the billion being
spent on image laundering are a huge loss from the onset. In fact, the best way
for any government to acquire a positive image is for it to always be
transparent, fair to all its citizens and act promptly against any form of shady
deal to clear itself from suspicion. Won’t it sound rather hilarious for us to
dilly-dally over this whopping sum of N25 billion and still chorus the
nerve-jarring plea "forgive us our debts" before our usurious
international creditors?
It has become clear that the
negative firsts we often score are more as a result of some disruptive actions
and failures of government and its officials than those of ordinary citizens.
The way the officials involved in the Halliburton scandal and other glaring
cases - some of which may seem hidden - are handled may determine the next
position Transparency International would give us among corrupt nations.
Government should please not let us be rated the first again among the most
corrupt nations on earth.
• Ifediba, a pharmacist, lives in FESTAC
housing estate, Lagos.
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