The African Development Bank ( AfDB) has debarred China Zhonghao Limited, a Chinese construction company with a lot of interest on the African continent from bidding for construction contracts financed by the bank,May 14.
This follows an indictment of China Zhonghao for fraudulently misrepresenting its year of incorporation, value of its reference contracts and cognate experience of its key personnel while bidding for two tenders under AfDB-financed Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Improvement Project for Oyo and Taraba States in Nigeria.
In a related development, two Chinese employees of Zhonghao were arrested last week, by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly offering a bribe of N100 million to one of its officers, to quash investigations into an unexecuted contract awarded to the company by the state government in Sokoto State. The EFCC arraigned Meng Wei Kun and Xui Kuoi ,the two staff of China Zhonghao Limited accused of attempted bribery at the Sokoto State High Court on Friday, charged with the alleged bribery.
AfDB’s office of Integrity and Anti-Corruption established that China Zhonghao Limited committed the fraudulent deals and debarred it from participating in projects, financed by the bank for a period of 18 months.
Aside the 18 months exclusion from the bank-financed projects, China Zhonghao stands debarred by other multilateral development banks like the World Bank group; Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank, owing to Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions among them.
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