The global organisation, which pools the world's largest financial donations for the prevention, treatment, and care of AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria, blacklisted Zenith Carex in its report.
It accused the firm of systematically inflating invoices for the distribution of health commodities to warehouses and health facilities throughout
The company committed the alleged fraud between 2017 and 2019, a period of two years, the report had stated.
EFCC confirms probe
EFCC,
It confirmed the ongoing investigation against Zenith Carex and others in its reply to this newspaper's Freedom of Information (FoI) request.
PREMIUM
This is despite the reputational damage and possible loss of goodwill the blacklisting of the Nigerian firms is capable of causing the country in the global space.
Assuring this newspaper of its efforts to ensure justice is done regarding the matter, EFCC wrote that it is investigating "
The letter signed by the head of FoI desk of the agency,
"It will interest you to know that the investigation has reached an advanced stage," the letter read in part, adding, "A zoom meeting was even held with representatives of
Zenith Carex contacted
When contacted by PREMIUM TIMES in March, a representative of the firm said the company was aware of the OIG report. The contact, however, said the company would not want to comment publicly on the matter as their lawyers were exploring the best possible legal option to take.
But, Zenith Carex denied the allegations in a report by Punch Newspaper on
The firm said EFCC was aware of the development and had invited some of the parties involved. It also called on the federal government to intervene in the matter.
Confronted with EFCC's fresh revelation to PREMIUM and asked to comment on it again on Friday, an official at Zenith Carex whose phone number appears on the firm's website, declined to speak.
The official, whom
"So, I cannot speak further as the case is still under investigation."
Background
Given that
Since 2003, the
Zenith, a sub-contractor of
The OIG report said Zenith allegedly inflated distribution invoices up to ten-fold and misrepresented the services executed, resulting in a
The revelation builds on previous yearly reports by the OIG accusing Nigerian companies and government agencies of abusing millions of dollars of the
Aside from the EFCC, the
We also sent a similar FOI request to the ICPC seeking to know the status of its investigations of allegations reported by the OIG but there is no response yet.
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