Halliburton Faces Fresh Probe
Over illegal export of radio active substance
From Lillian Okenwa in Abuja
The Federal Government is currently investigating US-based Halliburton Energy Services Ltd (HESNL) over the disappearance of some radioactive substances the oil service firm was alleged to have brought into the country in 2002.
Halliburton has been linked to several illegal transactions across the globe, including corrupt practices in Nigeria.
THISDAY checks revealed that the Federal Government has also expressed its determination to prosecute all those implicated in the stealing, exportation and negligent handling of the high risk radioactive substance that reportedly disappeared from the country in 2002 a few months after its importation by the oil services company.
A statement from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation disclosed that so far the on-going investigation has revealed that a Nigerian company, Cabomet International Metal trade belonging to one Mr. Babatunde Kosegbe, who has since fled the country, was involved in the illegal transaction.
Also preliminary investigation showed that the radioactive substances were labelled as stainless steel and exported by Messrs Richard and Associates to Eldelstahi Recycling GMBH Germany via Antwerp in Belgium.
The committee visited Germany between January 18 and 23, 2004 with the view to seeking the repatriation of the said materials and to monitor the trial proceedings of all suspects. But while in Germany, it discovered that Halliburton had taken possession of the materials and exported same to the USA on January 16, two days before the committee was billed to arrive Germany.
The Federal Government, according to the statement from the Attorney General's office, has protested to the German authorities against the "abrupt unilateral discontinuation of the investigation, improper lifting of the seizure on the radioactive sources and release of the sources to Halliburton USA despite the manifest registration of Nigeria's interest in the matter."
Furthermore, government was said to have made a formal complaint to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the matter and to the US government over the conduct of Halliburton.
The response is still being awaited.
Pledging its commitment to ensuring the safety of its citizens with regard to the radioactive materials, the Federal Government through the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Akinlolu Olujimi, SAN, said it has commenced investigations into the matter.
The radio active sources were imported into the country in 2002 by Halliburton but by December 24, of the same year, two of the materials said to have been earlier used for well-logging were reported to have disappeared.
The importation, according to the statement, is permissible under Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Act 1995 for companies in the petroleum industry that require such materials for industrial radiography, nuclear well-logging and nuclear gauging.
Report of the loss was made to IAEA whose response team visited the country in February 2003.
Thereafter, the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) formally suspended Halliburton from carrying out any activity in the country involving the use, importation, transport and transfer of radioactive sources until and unless the two sources were recovered,
Investigations finally revealed the sources were exported out of the country and later intercepted by German authorities at a steel recycling plant in the state of Bavaria, Germany.
Federal Government at this point requested the German authorities to repatriate the radioactive sources to Nigeria after concluding the case in Nigeria. This was to enable them prosecute those found culpable in Nigeria.
Subsequently, an inter-ministerial committee was set up by the government to handle all investigations connected with the stolen materials including the prosecution of those found culpable.
In a statement made available to THISDAY, Olujimi disclosed that President Olusegun Obasanjo in February constituted a six-man committee of inquiry with the following terms of reference:
_To identify persons/corporate bodies involved within Nigeria and abroad;
_To ascertain harmful effects, if any, on persons who handled the radioactive materials;
_To establish any legal claims/damages that can be instituted against Messrs Halliburton Energy Services Nigeria Limited;
_To identify any lapses that led to the materials being exported out of the country undetected; and to suggest ways of preventing a recurrence.
It would be recalled that the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) last weekend, launched a formal investigation into allegations that Halliburton's subsidiary, Kellog Brown & Root, along with its partners in the TSKJ Consortium, paid bribes totalling $180 million to secure contracts to build the Nigeria LNG plant in Bonny, Rivers State.
The company was also involved in a tax scam, where it paid $2.4 million bribe to evade the payment of tax liabilities of some $5 million.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said the company had refunded $3.1 million out of its tax liabilities, was still expected to pay additional taxes in excess of $10 million, which includes income tax and value added tax (VAT) that was arrived at after the audit carried out by KPMG, the tax consultant to the FIRS.
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