Niger lost tens of millions to arms deal malpractice.
Niger, wasted more than $100m of public money in a series of potential corrupt international arms deal, a leaked official document reveals.
It has been found that at least $137m had been lost due to malpractice over an eight-year period.
Much of the equipment was sourced from international firms in Russia, Ukraine and China had not been delivered or had been purchased without going through a genuine competitive bidding process.
In some instances documents had been forged and false companies set up, apparently to comply with regulations.
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an independent investigative reporting platform that obtained the 53-page audit, more than $320m worth of deals out of a total of $875m were problematic.
The OCCRP shared its findings with the Guardian before publication.The scandal has prompted a series of public protests and strikes in Niger despite government promises to recover the lost funds, punish any public agents responsible and introduce wide-ranging reforms.
Despite its deep poverty, Niger has spent heavily over the last decade on arms ranging from attack helicopters and fighter jets to armoured vehicles and automatic rifles.
The country’s new military capabilities and its strategically significant location in the Sahel region have made it an important ally for local and western powers fighting a tenacious Islamic extremist insurgency.
Hundreds of Nigerien troops have been killed in a series of massacres in the conflict.
In 2017, five died alongside four US Special Forces soldiers in an ambush by militants linked to Islamic State.
There have been repeated complaints that troops lack correct equipment and training, and receive poor rations and pay.
Niger has received huge sums in development and humanitarian aid from the US, as well as hundreds of millions dollars in military assistance and payments for humanitarian operations from the US during the period examined by the auditors.
Many of the suspect deals revealed by the report involve a small number of well-connected businessmen with close ties to Niger’s government.
“All the economic actors mentioned in the audit belong to the ruling party.
They come from the same region as the president,” said Hassane Diallo, the head of Centre d’Assistance Juridique et d’Action Citoyenne, a Niger-based anti-corruption group.
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