AfDB Bans Cameroonian Firm

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has excluded the African Center for Applied Forest Research and Development (CARFAD), a consultancy based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and Mr Benjamin Tchoffo, its executive director, from doing business with the bank for a minimum period of 36 months.

An investigation by the AfDB Integrity and Anti-Corruption Bureau, according to its release copied to the Ghana News Agency, said Mr Tchoffo and CARFAD engaged in an obstructive manoeuvre by significantly impeding the exercise by the Bank's right to conduct inspections and audits.

The consulting firm had previously won a contract under the Agroforestry Development Support Project (PADA) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The PADA was funded from the resources of the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) hosted within the Bank.

It said in a release during the exclusion period, neither Mr Tchoffo nor CARFAD are eligible for the award of contracts financed by the Bank.

The Integrity and Anti-Corruption Office of the AfDB is responsible for the prevention, deterrence and investigation of corruption, fraud and other punishable practices in operations financed by the bank group.

It said the general public and staff could use the Offices of Integrity and Anti-Corruption to expose punishable practices within the Bank or in the operations it finances.

GNA
By Maxwell Awumah, GNA