The World Bank has suspended a Nigerian information technology solution company, SoftTech IT Solutions and Services Ltd., and its Managing Director, Isah Kantigi, for alleged corrupt practices.
While the tech company was sanctioned for 50 months, its MD was sanctioned for 60 months.
In a statement published on the bank’s website on Wednesday announcing the debarring of the tech company and its MD, titled “World Bank Group debars SoftTech IT Solutions and Services Ltd. and its managing director,” the bank disclosed that the firm and its MD were being sanctioned for improper payments made to certain officials of the National Social Safety Nets Project, which the bank saw as bribery.
“The World Bank Group today announced the 50-month debarment of SoftTech IT Solutions and Services Ltd., an information technology solutions company based in Nigeria, and the 60-month debarment of its managing director, in connection with corrupt practices as part of the National Social Safety Nets Project in Nigeria,” the statement reads.
Part of the sanctions also stipulates that for the period the suspension will last, neither the company nor Katingi will be able to engage in any project funded by the World Bank.
“SoftTech and Mr. Isah Salihu Kantigi, are now ineligible to engage in World Bank Group-funded projects and operations,” the statement added.
The IT firm which specializes in Big Data and Cloud Solutions, Geographic Information Systems and Mapping, Information Retrieval and Search Engines, according to the bank, had breached the “Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions,” which was signed on April 9, 2010, and as a result, both “are eligible for cross-debarment by other multilateral development banks (MDBs).”
It added that Kantigi also worked out a deal with other individual consultants, allowing them to make similar payments to project officials, an act the Bank frowns at and sees as
a corrupt practice.
“This constitutes a corrupt practice under the World Bank’s Anti-Corruption Guidelines. The settlement agreements provide for reduced periods of debarment in light of Mr. Kantigi’s and SoftTech’s cooperation and acknowledgement of the misconduct.