AfDB blacklists firm over fraud, corrupt practices

The African Development Bank said it has blacklisted Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC) for 21 months for fraudulent and corrupt practices. The financial institution said this in a statement. BWSC is a global turnkey developer, contractor and operator of custom specific engine-based and boiler-based power plants across Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Europe among others. Its ambition is to provide highly efficient and reliable energy supply while ensuring low environmental impact and low cost for the power plant owner and consumers.

According to AfDB, the company was engaged in sanctionable practices in a power generation project financed by the Bank in Mauritius. In 2014 and 2015, it stated that Burmeister & Wain participated in tenders for the redevelopment of the Saint Louis power plant in Mauritius, a project financed by the Bank. It stated, “Evidence supports a finding that Burmeister & Wain, on a balance of probabilities, financially rewarded members of the Mauritian administration and others, through the intermediary of third parties. “This was allegedly done for providing access to confidential tender-related information which allowed them to tailor the technical specifications of the tenders to its offering, thus gaining an undue competitive advantage over other tenderers. Burmeister & Wain further concealed the arrangements it had entered into with the third parties, in breach of the rules governing the tenders.”

The debarment imposed by the Bank renders Burmeister & Wain ineligible to participate in Bank-financed projects and thus to benefit from its financing during the debarment period.

The 21 months debarment qualifies for cross-debarment by other multilateral development banks pursuant to the Agreement for Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions. According to this agreement, debarments longer than 12 months pronounced by any of its signatories, including the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank Group, are recognised and imposed in the same way by its other signatories.