The announcement by Nigeria’s former Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of her two international
posts with Global Alliance for Vaccine and
Immunization (GAVI) and Lazard Group LLC has raised
conflict of interest concerns. A day ago, Mrs. Okonjo-
Iweala disclosed that she GAVI had appointed her a
board member while the Lazard Group, an assets
management firm, hired her as a “senior advisor.”
Ex-Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Photo Credit:
Credits: www.connectnigeria.com
In her long career as Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs.
Okonjo-Iweala’s actions and policies had financially
benefited the two multinational entities that have
engaged her, our investigations discovered.
On July 27th, 2015 SaharaReporters broke the news
that the Ministry of Health had questioned the
propriety and authority of Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s
decision to remit $2.2 million to GAVI, a major non-
governmental organization. The Global Alliance for
Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) had completed a Cash
Program Audit (CPA) in 2014, and accused the Ministry
of Health and National Primary Healthcare
Development Agency (NPHCDA) of misusing $2.2
million meant for vaccinations in Nigeria between
2011 and 2013.
A press statement by GAVI, released on July 30th
2015, stated, “it was agreed in principle by the
Minister [of Health] to repay any funds identified as
having been misused.” The statement continued: “The
CPA [Cash Program Audit] determined that US$2.2
million had been misused.”
GAVI finally disclosed that, pursuant to the agreement
between them and the Nigerian government, the
multinational organization “has since been fully
reimbursed.”
But an independent investigation by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) suggested that
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala’s authorization of payment of $ 2.2
million to GAVI was hastily done, and against the
protest of Nigeria’s Ministry of Health.
Sources within the Nigerian government, law
enforcement and civil society disputed GAVI’s claims
that part of the vaccination funds was misused. The
groups also questioned the propriety of Mrs. Okonjo-
Iweala’s authorization of a refund to GAVI especially as
the reconciliation done by several statutory agencies
found that GAVI’s fund was not mismanaged in anyway.
The Federal Ministry of Health was so mystified by the
refund that its permanent secretary, L.N. Awute, wrote
a letter to the EFCC asking for an investigation. Dated
July 15, 2015, the permanent secretary’s letter stated
it was “surprising to note that the payment of the
disputed USD 2.2 million was made to GAVI by the
Federal Ministry of Finance” under the leadership of
Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala without consultation with the
Health Ministry.
Mr. Awute further informed the EFCC that the Health
Ministry “drew the attention of the then Coordinating
Minister for the Economy [Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala] on the
necessity for a reconciliatory process to address the
discrepancies in the GAVI audit report. However, we
are yet to receive any response to our letter from the
Federal Ministry of Finance.”
The permanent secretary wrote that the ministry
learned of “conflicting information and discrepancies”
between their investigation and the GAVI audit,
prompting the ministry’s appeal to the EFCC to
scrutinize all the findings.
An anti-corruption group, the Civil Society Coalition
Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), said it became
interested in the matter after learning of GAVI’s
allegation that Nigerian officials misused vaccination
funds.
However, a source at CSNAC told SaharaReporters that
their independent investigation of the missing $2.2
million found no evidence to support GAVI’s claims of
misuse.
Our CSNAC source said his group contacted the EFCC,
the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Ministry of
Health, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and the
United Nations International Children’s Emergency
Fund. “All of these groups indicated that they were not
aware that Nigerian officials violated any rules in the
disbursement of the vaccination funds. Nor did they
find that any funds were misappropriated or misused,”
the source said.
The EFCC’s report, obtained by SaharaReporters,
stated that their investigators had not established any
“case of fraud, diversion of funds, or other crimes in
relation to the [GAVI] project.” The EFCC report added
that their investigation “confirmed that [the] National
Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA)
paid all due taxes to the Federal Inland Revenue
Service. The NPHCDA also paid required funds to
UNICEF in 2012,” contrary to GAVI’s allegations.
According to the EFCC, “all contracts under the [GAVI]
project were duly executed” and “the findings from the
initial [GAVI] audit report [were] based on unfounded
suspicion of fraud.”
Our CSNAC source described GAVI’s audit as
“troubled.” He added that the NPHCDA and the Health
Ministry blamed “misleading assumptions and non-
transparent actions by the [GAVI] CPA team” for the
wholly inaccurate audit. CSNAC’s investigation also
found that “there was a significant downward revision
of the ‘unaccounted sum’ of $8.2 million in CPA’s
initial report to $2.2 million in the final report.” This
discrepancy underscored the broader problems and
concerns over the GAVI audit, the source said.
CSNAC’s independent investigation also debunked
GAVI’s allegation that the Federal Ministry of Health
and NPHCDA had not supplied the required
incinerators. CSNAC’s investigation found that the
majority of incinerators were provided at the required
locations.
CSNAC concluded that the Nigerian government “has
refuted GAVI’s claims and provided documentary and
other evidence which contradict GAVI’s claims.” CSNAC
contacted GAVI’s representatives in Nigeria to discuss
their findings in greater depth, but GAVI demurred,
claiming that they were “not in a position to share with
information related to the audit beyond what is
published.”
CSNAC described GAVI’s attitude as inconsistent with
international best practices. It particularly condemned
“GAVI’s adamant and uncooperative posture.”
Ex-Minister Okonjo-Iweala’s election to GAVI’s board
has raised deep suspicions, considering her role in
authorizing the questionable refund of $2.2 million to
the group less than one year ago.
Lazard Group’s hiring of the 61-year-old Okonjo-Iweala
has also raised equally significant conflict of interest
issues. Neither the firm nor Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala
disclosed that Lazard has a subsidiary known as Lazard
Frères, a French investment bank that was hired by the
Nigerian government as a consultant in the
controversial loan forgiveness negotiations that
culminated in Nigeria’s payment of close to $20 billion
in loan repayments to the Paris Club in 2005. Lazard,
which had ties to the Paris Club secretariat, was paid $
100,000 monthly for the duration of the loan
repayment negotiations, according to sources in the
Nigerian government knowledgeable about the deal.
While Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala celebrates her new
appointments, she faces serious questions about her
management of the Nigerian economy during two
Presidencies marked by the theft of billions of dollars
from the Nigerian treasury. Besides, even though Mrs.
Okonjo-Iweala had trumpeted the Paris Club debt deal
as a signal achievement of her ministerial tenure
during the Presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, she
oversaw Nigeria’s descent into another era of
strangulating debt during her ministerial stint under
President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The most important question now, with Okonjo-
Iweala’s recent appointments, is whether she traded
Nigeria’s economic interests to secure these
positions,” said a civic society source.
SaharaReporters contacted representatives from GAVI
about these findings and whether they had any
connection to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s election, but
the representative refused to answer any questions by
phone. GAVI prompted SaharaReporters to submit
questions by email but they remained unanswered at
the time of publication. GAVI is closely connected to
the US-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
A SaharaReporters correspondent also contacted
representatives from Lazard about conflicts of interest
related to their dealings with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
during the 2005 debt negotiations and her
appointment as senior adviser, however our calls were
not immediately returned.
http://saharareporters.com/2015/09/22/former-finance-minister-okonjo-iweala’s-latest-jobs-raise-concerns-over-abuse-office-and

I see this as a media bent on tainting NOI s name out of deep rooted hatred

"I don't trust anything from Sahara reporters". Quote me anywhere

My take on this is simply. Live goes On for this woman despite the change in government

This is high time to hack this fools site
They piss me off