Britain probes Mint over fraud in Nigeria

The probe of RM is one of the 19 high profile cases being handled by the SFO following rising involvement of British firms abroad in corruption.

The investigations are said to be a sign of how Britain�s anti-corruption efforts are putting an uncomfortable spotlight even on the behaviour of government-owned departments.

The RM, overseen by the British Treasury Department, was quoted by the Financial Times of London of January 28, 2008 as saying that it was working with the SFO in the ongoing investigation in Nigeria.

It, however, did not give details of its contracts with Nigeria, citing commercial confidentiality.

In its latest annual report, RM said it had just fulfilled a �substantial� coin order from Nigeria.

The company has a renewable contract to supply the CBN with �overseas blank� metal discs that are stamped to form finished coins.

It won the deal even though coins are little used in every day Nigerian transactions.

The report stated that overseas contracts such as the Nigerian coin deals are parts of RM�s efforts to respond to British Government�s pressure on it to reverse losses.

In 2007, the company made a profit of �8.7m after giving voluntary redundancy to 72 workers.

Asked why Nigeria needed the coins, RM said in the FT publication that �It�s supply and demand. We supply coins where there is demand.�

The Special Assistant to the governor of the CBN, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, was quoted by the FT as saying that he was not aware of the investigation.

He said the Nigerian Security and Minting Company put fresh coins into circulation last year, although their use had remained poor because of their low value.

Okoroafor said it was �practically impossible� for corruption to have occurred in contracts struck under procurement safeguards put in place at the NSMC.

The probe of RM is described as a reminder of similar but unrelated 2005 involving a former regional sales manager of the company.

The manager was however cleared of fraudulently taking �18,000 in commission payments relating to a contract between RM and the Central Bank of The Gambia.

The FT quoted SFO�s Director, Mr. Robert Wardle, as confirming that presently the agency was probing 19 cases of overseas frauds.

Wardle explained that one case had already been referred to the office of the Attorney-General for a final decision on whether to prosecute or not.

He added that the office was awaiting new powers which would allow investigators access to more financial information during their �vetting� to decide whether or not cases were worth investigating fully.

The SFO boss said that the office was being inundated with several reports on corruption charges against British companies overseas.

On the probe of the RM, he merely said that the company was �cooperating.�

Other British companies being investigated include BAE Systems in Romania, Czech Republic, South Africa and Tanzania.

Others are MW Kellogg and Balfour Beatty of Egypt.

MW Kellogg, a firm in which Halliburton then held majority shares, is being probed in connnection with the building of a gas plant in Nigeria.

It was also learnt on Tuesday that the SFO had begun probe into fraudulent mails and parcels from Nigeria to the UK.

Investigations by our correspondents showed that the aim of the investigation was to determine the complicity or otherwise of Nigerian officials in such scams.

SFO officials who arrived in Nigeria a week ago in connection with the investigation left last Friday.

The officials were said to have examined the strengths and weaknesses of the Nigerian postal system in order to determine how scam mails pass through it to foreign lands.

Places visited by them included the International Mail Processing Centres in Ikeja and Apapa, Lagos.

The IMPC at the international wing of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos is where all mails arriving the country are processed.

Those departing the country are also sorted there.

The IMPC at the Apapa sea port is where all mails and parcels arriving the country through the sea are processed. Those departing the country are also processed there.

The Head of Investigations and Security at the Nigerian Postal Services, Mr. Joseph Bello, who confirmed the visit of the SFO officials, also disclosed that they donated scanning machines to NIPOST.

The scanning machines are to enable the service to dictate smaller concealments in mails before they are shipped abroad.

They would complement the scanning equipment which NIPOST uses in detecting bigger concealments.

It was also gathered that the investigators held discussions with the hierarchy of NIPOST on areas they could collaborate in order to reduce the incidence of scam mails originating from Nigeria.

NIPOST, in collaboration with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, had between October and December 2007 intercepted N14.21bn fake currencies that were designated for foreign countries.

The various currencies were concealed in more than 4,000 scam letters destined for Britain, Germany, France, China, Japan, Russia, Canada, Brazil and United States.

Within the same period, the service intercepted the shipment of more than 2,500 fake passports to various countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North and South America and US.

It equally recovered 105 digital cameras, 55 cam-coders and over 100 assorted digital mobile handsets which had been fraudulently sourced through the Internet by some unscrupulous Nigerians.