Fraud: AfDB places Zhongmei Engineering on 12 months conditional non-debarment - ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

For engaging in misrepresentation of facts, the African Development Bank Group has placed a 12-month conditional non-debarment on Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited, reports ITREALMS.

The company ITREALMS gathered had submitted a bid for the tender for the upgrading of the Rukungiri-Kihihi-Ishaka/Kanungu Road in Uganda, with a misrepresented fact on its date of incorporation.

So, on Friday, 17 April 2020, AfDB declared its resolve to place the company on a year conditional non-debarment. Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited is an engineering company registered in Uganda.

In addition, ITREALMS reports that an investigation conducted by the Bank’s Office of Integrity and Anti-Corruption established that Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited, engaged in fraudulent practice during a bidding process under the Road Sector Support Project 5. 

"While submitting a bid for the tender for the Upgrading of the Rukungiri-Kihihi-Ishaka/Kanungu Road in Uganda, the company misrepresented its date of incorporation," AfDB official confirmed.

With this development, AfDB noted that during the conditional non-debarment period, Zhongmei Engineering Group Limited remains eligible to participate in African Development Bank Group-financed projects provided it undertakes a corporate integrity compliance programme in accordance with the Bank’s Integrity Compliance Guidelines. 

"Otherwise, the conditional non-debarment will convert to a sanction of debarment with conditional release, and the company will then become ineligible to participate in African Development Bank Group-financed projects until the conditions for its release are met," ITREALMS was informed in related press statement.

Further, ITREALMS recalls that the Road Sector Support Project 5 is financed under the African Development Fund, an entity of the African Development Bank Group.

African Development Bank staff and the general public can use secured hotlines to report sanctionable practices within the Bank or operations financed by the Bank Group.

Nenye Dom/Editor

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FG places travel bans travel on China, USA, UK, Germany, 9 others

ITREALMS:

THE Federal Government (FG) has issued a travel ban on 13 countries over the spread of the Coronavirus, otherwise known as CoVID19, with effect from Saturday, March 21, 2020, reports ITREALMS.

Disclosing this development, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said Tuesday after a closed-door meeting with the Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19 in Abuja, that the ban affected some 13 countries including China, Iran, South Korea, Germany, Italy, USA, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Spain, France, and Japan.

He also said the committee after a meeting concluded that all officials in the Ministries, Department, and Agencies, comprising parastatals to stop all forms of travels out of the country for whatever reasons.

“At the conclusion of the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Task Force on the control of COVID-19, the committee has reached some decisions.

“We have decided to advise that all officials in the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies including parastatals, that government has banned all forms of travels out of the country for whatever reasons.

“Whether for meetings, bi-lateral, multilateral, conferences, seminars, workshops and any form of other ceremonies. And this ban will remain in place until further notice and until the situation of pandemic nature of the COVID-19 stops.

FG warned that “By this notice, any prior approval to travel abroad on official assignment during this period is accordingly resisted.”

As said by Mustapha, the committee equally urged for scaling up the nation’s health emergency system to the highest level and put in measures to curb further spread of the disease.

The committee headed by the SGF also advised the citizens strongly in their own interest to cancel or postpone all non-essential travel abroad including business and vacation trips.

“This is especially so, especially when it comes to the countries known to be seriously affected by the COVID-19.

“Secondly, we urge anyone returning to Nigeria from any country to strictly self-isolate for 14 days. And that all people returning from countries with high community transmission rate, especially countries that have recorded a thousand cumulative cases and above would be actively isolated for 14 days by the health authorities,” he said.

The nation’s chief scribe said that the Nigerian government was also in support of measures taken by the government of other countries, particularly high burden countries who have urged their citizens to stay home and avoid non-essential travels.

*Uboshe Uboshe with additional reports from NAN

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Emirates commences daily flights from Abuja

ITRealms:

Global connector of people and places, the Emirates, has now linked up to the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, reports ITRealms.

Abuja is Emirates 26th destination in Africa and its 144th worldwide.

ITRealms recalls that Emirates flight EK785 landed at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport on 1st August, marking the start of the airline’s daily service to its second destination in Nigeria, even as its services to Lagos were launched just over 10 years ago.

Confirming this to ITRealms, Emirates’ Vice President for Commercial Operations, Northern and Western Africa, Adil Al Ghaith, said this new daily flight provides a convenient point to point service for customers between Abuja and Dubai, and it will meet and further stimulate a vibrant market demand between the two cities.

“It will also serve our customers in Nigeria and around the network with additional connectivity and daily frequency. Our leisure and business passengers from Nigeria can now better connect to the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Asia via our hub in Dubai,” Ghaith said.

The VP also said that customers in Abuja could experience the A380 flagship aircraft to 29 destinations around the world, including popular ones like Beijing, Hong Kong, Mumbai, New York, Jeddah and London.

He equally said that with a fast growing economy, Nigeria is a key market for Emirates, pointing out that they started operations to Nigeria on 2nd January 2004, with four flights a week from Dubai to Lagos.

“Since then, our operations have steadily grown with increases in both frequency and capacity between Lagos and Dubai. Today, we fly twice daily to Lagos and now we have added Abuja, giving us a total of more than 12,200 seats a week, which will further stimulate business and leisure travel, as well as trade,” he said.

Emirates’ Dubai-Abuja route is served by an Airbus A340-300 which offers 267 seats in a three-class configuration - 12 First Class, 42 Business Class and 213 Economy Class seats. Customers on the route experience Emirates’ award-winning hospitality - from multi-national cabin crew and gourmet cuisine to the iceentertainment system, which offers hundreds of channels of audio and visual entertainment. Customers also enjoy Emirates’ generous baggage allowance of 30kg in Economy Class, 40kg in Business and 50kg in First.

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