When Elombah.com reported on October 5, 2009 that the former CBN governor, Charles Soludo was named as one of the CBN officials that received bribes allegedly paid to Nigerian officials by the Australian
printing company, Securency in order to secure contracts for the printing of polymer naira notes, Soludo denied that CBN could have been involved in the bribery allegation because the CBN only placed an order with the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company Limited Plc and was not involved in the award of contracts.
However, it has since emerged that ‘Only CBN can award such contract’. According to a source in the CBN, it is only the central bank that could have awarded the contract for the printing of the polymer notes because the CBN has majority stake of 77 per cent in Nigeria’s Mint.
Supporting our position, The Nation Newspaper yesterday reported that some top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) were neck-deep in the polymer banknote contract. According The Nation Newspaper, documents have shown that five companies bid for the contract before it was awarded to two.
The former CBN governor Prof Soludo denied that the CBN was in any way involved in the award of the contract. But the contract for the polymer currency was awarded during the tenure of Chukwuma Soludo as CBN boss in 2006.
Documents obtained by The Nation revealed that five companies bid for the contract. The companies are: Global Securency (Australia); Gieesecke and Devrient (G &D) of Germany; De La Rue (the UK); FC Oberther (France) and Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC).
The bid was opened on March 27, 2006. It was concluded by April 4, 2006.
A March 16, 2006 letter from the Director of Currency and Banking Operations of the CBN invited the five firms for the bid, after they had submitted "designs of the cover banknote denominations under the CBN Currency Restructuring Programme". "You are expected to submit quotations for the printing of the redesigned N5, N10, N20, and N50 notes," the companies were told.
The letter asked the five firms to also put "ex-factory price cost of freight and NSPM commission (3%) in their quotations."
The contract was awarded to the short-listed firms on May 2, 2006.
Quoting “a highly-placed source”, The Nation said: "After the bid, G&D and NSPMC were awarded the contract for the printing of the notes. But Global Securency won the bid for the production of blank polymer notes.
"So, the contract began and ended in CBN. Some top officials of the apex bank were neck-deep in the deal. If the CBN Governor, Mr. Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, is probing the alleged bribery scandal, he should look inward.
"The records are there on how the transactions took place. Let him call for all files and get details of who did what during the contract."
Further, Soludo reportedly asserted that it is incongruous that a company like Securency that enjoys monopoly would want to pay a bribe to secure contract in Nigeria. Echoing him one of his supporters wrote to us saying; “Who are Securency's competitors for the Nigerian contract and why would the bribe be necessary”?
Yet the fact remains that the firm, Securency, was found to have made a series of multimillion-dollar payments into offshore bank accounts of two British-based businessmen linked to the currency printing deal.
A confidential source revealed to Elombah.com that The Australia Federal Police Authority early this year sent a high level confidential security memo to the Presidency through the Office of the National Security adviser detailing bribery probe that centres on a series of multimillion-dollar payments by RBA firm Securency into offshore bank accounts of two British-based businessmen for onward transfer to Nigerian Government Officials to win a bank-note deal in the most serious development in a cash-for-contracts scandal.
Australian Federal Police taskforce had been investigating Securency for possible breaches of Australia's criminal code, which outlaws payments to foreign officials.
Prominent amongst the names that featured in the secret memo is that of then CBN Governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo, senior officials of the finance ministry and a former president.
Another website (Saharareporters) has also lately reported that “Soludo reportedly demanded and received bribes from the firm before steering contracts to the company to mass-produce polymer currency”.
Soludo who is running for the Anambra State gubernatorial election on the platform of the PDP had first printed the N20 denomination on polymer. Three other denominations – N5, N10 and N50 – were recently issued on polymer.
President Umaru Yar‘Adua launched the new N5, N10 and N50 polymer notes on September 30 at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The circulation of the new bank notes coincided with Nigeria’s 49th Independence Anniversary Day celebration.
Barely a few days after the launch, there were reports of underhand deals between some CBN officials and Securency International Pty of Australia – suppliers of the material for the notes. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is probing alleged N750million offered by Securency to win the contract, which was awarded before Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi governorship.
The current CBN Governor Lamido Sanusi has promised that the Federal Government will investigate the allegation to determine if Central Bank officials received the alleged payoff.
Sanusi has officially sought clarifications from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on its bank-note firm’s dealings in Africa involved multimillion-dollar payments to offshore tax havens. Sanusi described as ‘’disturbing’’ the revelation that more than $10 million in commissions were wired to accounts - including some in secretive tax havens - by the RBA’s bank-note firm Securency.
The Age newspaper of Australia this month revealed that Mr Harding and another British-based businessman, Benoy Berry, were paid several million dollars by Securency to market the company’s polymer notes in Africa and to win a currency printing deal in Nigeria.
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