Audit of the Ministry of Defense in Niger: the preliminary investigation ends

A Nigerien soldier on a tank, in Niamey, on July 7, 2019. ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP

Text by: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow

The preliminary investigation into the Nigerian Ministry of Defense audit report is nearing completion. This audit scrutinized 177 military equipment purchase contracts signed for the majority between 2017 and 2019. Extracts from the report that have leaked in recent weeks revealed a shortfall of more than 110 million euros for the State - 76 billion FCFA-, via overcharges, fictitious contracts, unfair competition or simply non-delivery of equipment. No one has been worried yet. But the investigation is progressing and after dozens of hearings, the police officers are preparing to hand over to the prosecutor. 

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Since the beginning of April, dozens of people have been questioned by the judicial police officers. There are of course the suppliers of equipment whose practices and commercial margins are pointed out in the audit report submitted to justice, but also other civilians and soldiers. 

A contract goes through an entire institutional chain for its negotiation, validation, and execution. The investigators therefore looked at the role of everyone, whether at the Ministry of Defense but also at the Ministry of Finance or the General Staff. Hence the large number of hearings.

Among the personalities heard are notably the former secretary general of the Ministry of Defense, General Karingama, a key man, dismissed on January 13. " It is the memory of the place ", confide several people who had to meet him. Another personality interviewed by Colonel Major Boulama, former chief of staff of the Air Force, dismissed him on May 22.

At this stage, the Defense Ministers in post during the periods studied by the audit were not interviewed, this would require a special procedure which has not yet been activated. 

According to judicial sources, the preliminary investigation is coming to an end and could arrive at the prosecutor's office next week. It is he who will then decide what action to take and who will decide whether it is expedient to seize an examining magistrate.

The work of justice promises to be complicated in this case which has ramifications abroad. If the government tried to negotiate it financially in February and March with certain suppliers, justice should be positioned only on the right plan, to say whether or not there was an infraction of the criminal law. However, no text incriminates, as such, overcharging. On the other hand, unreasonable margins may possibly be material proof of a misappropriation of public funds.

" If it is proven that a trader and an authorizing officer of the market agreed to despoil the State, they can be prosecuted for improper use of public funds under article 121 of the Nigerien penal code ", explains a lawyer . This article has been used in the past in other Nigerian overcharging files.

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