Posted by From Cletus Akwaya in Abuja on
Visiting Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of US Based Halliburton Group, Mr. Andy Lane, yesterday praised the prevailing investment climate in Nigeria and said the country now has suitable environment for international companies to do business.
Visiting Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of US Based Halliburton Group, Mr. Andy Lane, yesterday praised the prevailing investment climate in Nigeria and said the country now has suitable environment for international companies to do business.
Lane and other top executives of the company had met with President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja to discuss some knotty issues over Halliburton's operations in the country's oil and gas sector as well as relationship with tax authorities in the country.
The visit came after the House of Representatives last month passed a resolution restraining the Federal Government from awarding contracts to Halliburton or any of its subsidiaries or patronising its business in any way. The company is being accused of corrupt practices in its past transactions in the country.
But Lane who spoke with THISDAY editors at the NICON Hilton Hotel said the Federal Government's anti-corruption war as well as initiatives to promote transparency and accountability have created a better environment for doing business than what obtained in the past.
"Things are changing in Nigeria. Yes. I think it has become much more transparent, much more accountable. It has brought more regulations in the industry, a lot of controls, I think that's good for industry too if you allow much more transparency to business," he said in apparent reference to the economic reform programme of the Obasanjo administration.
"We need some level of transparency and you know the issue of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The world asking for that level of accountability helps operating companies," he noted.
Lane described as hasty, the decision by the House of Representatives to ban Halliburton from getting contracts in Nigeria and said the legislators were impatient with due process.
He said allegations of bribing government officials brought against the TSKJ consortium handling the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) project in Bonny in which Halliburton through its subsidiary had 25 per cent interest were already being investigated by a French Magistrate, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) in Nigeria, the State Department in the US and elsewhere. He said what the House wanted was a quick outcome, which was not the best approach in the situation.
The TSKJ consortium had hired a "consultant agent" to facilitate the company's operations in Nigeria in the early 1990s when it started developing the Train I of the NLNG.
The agent which got 2 per cent of the contract sum as his fees was alleged to have bribed a number of top Nigerian government officials during the regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha.
The lid was however, blown open when a French Magistrate launched investigation into the activities of a member of the consortium, a French company.
Lane said Halliburton was not part of the agreement to pay 2 per cent to the agent from which the bribe money was allegedly sourced as Halliburton only got involved in the project a few years later after having acquired a member of the initial consortium.
When asked whether the 2 per cent fees was not too much for the consultant agent given the huge sum of the contract, Lane said it was in the range of what obtained internationally as such agents were usually paid in the region of 2 or 3 per cent of contract sums.
On the relationship with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Lane explained that Halliburton never employed a consultant to fix its taxes as was being alleged in certain quarters. Rather, he said the Consultant in question was hired on the basis of information he provided that he was a former employee of the FIRS whereas he was still an employee of the tax agency.
But rather than pay the taxes as required, the consultant paid part of the tax and made away with the rest of the money.
He said in the process, his company lost over $2 million as it had to pay the full amount due to the FIRS.
Lane admitted however, that Halliburton erred by giving the money to the consultant rather than pay directly to FIRS as its procedure had been but blamed this on the enhanced autonomy granted the local project team working on the contract in question.