BRITAIN'S Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is examining Rolls Royce in connection with a failed N23bn independent power project in Delta State as part of a wider inquiry that also covers Brazil and China.
Apparently, the SFO in is examining whether Rolls Royce and its agents were involved in any bribery of government officials up to 2013 in connection with energy tenders in the country and a Nigerian company called PSL Engineering & Control. Similar investigations are going on into deals that took place in several other countries like Indonesia, China and Brazil.
PSL acted for Rolls-Royce on projects in Nigeria to supply gas turbines to power plants in the oil states of Bayelsa and Delta. Rolls-Royce sold its energy business to Siemens of Germany in 2014, after the period under investigation and it no longer does business with PSL.
One focus of the SFO investigation is the Delta State government’s independent power plant, known as the Oghareki power plant. The power plant located in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, has cost the state more than $100m but has never been completed and has been plagued by corruption claims.
In 2009, the project was awarded to Davnotch Nigeria, a company founded by Victor Ochei, a flamboyant former speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly. Norbert Osodi, Davnotch’s managing director, said that the company was not aware of the SFO investigation.
He said Davnotch had won the Oghareki tender through a proper process, adding that past allegations of corruption against the project were not credible and had been mounted by Ochei’s political enemies. Mr Osodi said there was no conflict of interest between Mr Ochei’s simultaneous holdings of a majority shareholding in Davnotch and his political seat because the parliamentary position was part-time.
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