A Chinese construction firm working in Sudan reportedly earned millions of dollars by inflating the cost and paying kickbacks as quid pro quo, a media report said.
Fu Hong Construction, Roads and Bridges Enterprises, involved in the corruption case, is owned by a Chinese couple based out of the Sobha area of the capital city of Khartoum. The firm has ties to now-deposed President Omar Al Bashir, was involved in a number of projects, particularly in sensitive locations, The Hong Kong Post reported.
The publication stated that Chinese company has been able to enjoy a free run due to the absence of foreign competitors due to international ban.
The report said that the company earned millions of dollars "by inflating the cost of projects and paying kickbacks as quid pro quo." The kickbacks were channelled to some prominent leaders of the previous regime including the deposed President and his deputy, it added.
Things started to take a turn when personnel from the graft committee raided the premises of the Fu Hong Company in December 2020 and recovered gold and cash. Again, the company was raided in March 2021 and around USD 1,38,000 was seized.
According to the Hong Kong Post report, the Committee reportedly demanded USD 4,00,000 to drop the case. "All these attempts were kept secret both by the company and also by the raiding party."
However, the incident was later discovered by the General Intelligence Service agency and it found out that the raid and recovery were unauthorized and the amounts recovered were never accounted for.
Besides infrastructure, experts have provided evidence of large scale grafts done by Chinese firms. Across multiple domains in over 200 projects in the field of agriculture, services and manufacturing including areas like farming, abattoirs, trade, mining, health, water supply etc more than 130 Chinese companies are directly involved in Sudan.
China has provided numerous interest-free loans and grants to the Sudanese government for diverse projects, but the country has now begun to sense the exploitation being meted out to them by the Chinese.
Mario de Gasperi, writing in the Center of Political and Foreign Affairs (CPFA) said that media reports indicate that Sudan, the strategically located oil-rich African nation is facing one of its worst economic crises.
The country is apparently under a debt burden worth about 20 billion dollars to China. Though many economists differ on the exact figure and debt estimates, the Chinese direct and indirect investment in Sudan is alleged to be nothing less than 29 billion dollars.
Like many other African nations, unaware of the systemic form of the Chinese intrusion, Sudan too welcomed Chinese investments with open arms and allowed the Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to make massive inroads in the much-valued petroleum sector.
But now, Sudan's Prime Minister called out the dubious role of Chinese entities in the oil sector by seeking a review of all agreements signed with China in the past.
( With inputs from ANI )
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