konga Ad Campaign konga Ad Campaign konga Ad Campaign
ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Monday, July 4, 2022
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
      • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Shell

Shell

Diplomat sacked for criticising Dutch companies’ ‘corruption’ in Nigeria – Report

byOladeinde Olawoyin
June 29, 2020
3 min read

A Dutch diplomat has lost his position after comments about alleged unethical conduct and corruption indulged in by the country’s businesses operating in Nigeria, a Dutch newspaper has reported.

Hans Smaling, who was Dutch economic envoy to West Africa between 2015 and 2018, was summarily made to leave his office after he complained about how the government and companies from the European country are involved corruption, he told NRC.

“In fact, on behalf of the Dutch government, I had to push the interests of the Netherlands, for example, and indirectly facilitate forms of possible corruption. Ridiculous,” the newspaper quotes the former diplomat as saying.

The new revelation comes not long after another report revealed how a former Dutch ambassador in Nigeria, Robert Petri, was engrossed in similar ethical scandal in a relationship with Shell that officials felt it was too close for comfort.

Information leak

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the NRC, a Dutch online news outlet, reported that at the end of 2017, the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria leaked the confidential information to oil company, Shell.

An investigation into Mr Petri’s tenure as ambassador to Nigeria was prompted by a complaint of integrity received by the country, the report revealed. The leakage of the confidential information fueled tensions at the embassy.

After two internal investigations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled Mr Petri back to the Netherlands in early 2019. The investigations revealed, among other things, a sick working atmosphere at the embassy.

Several partner organisations complained to the ministry that Mr Petri “was too much on Shell’s hand”.

Mr Petri was found to have shared confidential information about an impending visit by the tax investigative service FIOD to Nigeria at the end of 2017 with the local Shell director. He allegedly did this during a visit with his wife to the man’s residence.

More revelations

Meanwhile, Mr Smaling said the country is in Nigeria “for itself” and his advocacy for Netherlands to work “on the investment climate, on building the country, on macroeconomic stability, reforms and regulation” did not find favour with authorities at the foreign ministry.

“That was not what the economic envoy’s department wanted to hear,” Mr Smaling reportedly said.

Netherlands' Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives at a European Union leaders informal summit in Brussels, Belgium, on February 23, 2018. (Reuters)
Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte arrives at a European Union leaders informal summit in Brussels, Belgium, on February 23, 2018. (Reuters)

The report said Mr Smaling’s position was created in 2012, after the foreign economic relations department was transferred from Economic Affairs to Foreign Affairs ministry.

The new position was created for ‘promoting the competitive position of the Netherlands’: that of economic envoy / regional business developer. These special envoys were stationed in areas of economic interest to the Netherlands, such as Singapore, Dubai, Lima, Copenhagen and Nigeria.

After 34 years of field service, Mr Smaling knows perfectly well how Dutch business operates abroad, as well as how to facilitate this as a diplomat and how to keep an appropriate distance from it.

The newspaper reported that in most countries, he discovered that Dutch companies can do normal and good business. But not in Nigeria.

An instance was given of the Swiss-Dutch commodity trader, Vitol, which shipped heavily polluted diesel from Rotterdam to Nigeria, which contains up to two hundred times as much sulfur as is permitted in Europe.

“Is that what we want?”Mr Smaling was quoted to have said.

Similarly, from his network, he is said to have received information about large Dutch companies that ‘bought off’ problems with Nigerian customs.

He also heard “persistent rumors, from reliable sources” about Shell, an oil company, that would have left suitcases full of cash to get hold of the OPL 245 mega-oil field off the Nigerian coast.

It is believed the Shell summit at the head office in The Hague would have known about this.

“I pointed this out to the chief public prosecutor in the Netherlands in the autumn of 2017 in a personal conversation. That the Public Prosecution Service really had to look at that. ”

Mr Smaling alleged that going to bed with Shell was not only the making of Mr Petri-he was working on a mandate.

“He was sent out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the assignment to stand squarely in front of the Dutch business community. ” said Mr Smaling.

NRC reports that Mr Smaling warned his executives ‘several times’. He criticised the department and ministers Bert Koenders (Foreign Affairs) and Lilianne Ploumen (Foreign Trade).

He reportedly said: “I wrote a contribution in the weekend folder for the ministers. In it, I addressed endemic corruption in Nigeria. I wrote that I found it strange that the Dutch government facilitates companies that have to deal with corrupt practices. We are not going back to the times of the governor-general in the former Dutch East Indies, Abraham van Riebeeck, who said: “It is immoral but beneficial”. I also mentioned Shell. It was clear that no company – not even Shell – escapes gross corruption in Nigeria. ”

Mr Smaling also spoke regularly with Mr Petri, the ambassador removed from his post in 2019 after he himself leaked secret information about the criminal investigation into Shell to the oil company, as NRC revealed.

The criticism was that Mr Petri was too close to Shell.

Dutch authorities react

But in a reaction, a spokesperson said the Dutch government does not approve of corrupt conducts in Nigeria or elsewhere.

“The Dutch government, including our posts in Nigeria, has a zero tolerance policy on corruption,” the report quoted the spokesperson.

“The core of the Dutch effort is to ensure that economic interests and efforts in matters such as fighting corruption and human rights reinforce each other.

“The ministry welcomes contemplation among colleagues and encourages internal debate. There is no connection between Mr Smaling ‘s critical attitude and his retirement. In consultation with the Ministry, Mr Petri has chosen to refer questions from the press to the Communications Directorate.”

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket



Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: Call Willie - +2348098788999






PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

Prepare for hike in airfare as domestic flights resume, FG tells Nigerians

Next Post

Kaduna govt sets up ‘White Paper Committee’ on 1992 Zangon-Kataf crisis

Oladeinde Olawoyin

Oladeinde Olawoyin

Oladeinde Olawoyin reports Business & Economy, Development and Lagos Metro at PREMIUM TIMES. A First Class graduate of Mass Communication from the University of Ilorin, Ilorin, he was nominated in the journalism category of The Future Awards Africa in 2017. Aside maintaining a column titled ‘SATURDAY SATIRE’, he also writes art and culture pieces on weekends. Twitter: @Ola_deinde

More News

Police officers

Woman pushes down 14-year-old maid from four-storey building

July 3, 2022
President Muhammadu Buhari departs Lisbon, Portugal and arrives Abuja [PHOTO CREDIT: @Buharisallau1]

Ten takeaways from President Buhari’s visit to Portugal

July 3, 2022
A transformer used to illustrate the story

Vandals destroy 20 transformers in three weeks – Electricity Distribution Company

July 3, 2022
Logo of a Fintech company, FlutterWave

FinTechs got 63% of total funds raised by Nigerian start-ups in 2021 – Association

July 3, 2022
Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) [PHOTO CREDIT: @PastorEAAdeboye]

Insecurity: Pastor Adeboye clarifies statement on Christians defending themselves

July 3, 2022
The children while being transported in a police van

How we rescued 77 children, church members confined by pastor in church – Police

July 3, 2022
Next Post
Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai

Kaduna govt sets up 'White Paper Committee' on 1992 Zangon-Kataf crisis

NIGERIA: Nigerian police force

Kidnappers kill Abuja doctor after receiving N7.5 million ransom -- Police

Read All Comment

Search

AUN-PT Ad




Access Bank Ad







Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 13,454 other subscribers.

Advertisement




netherland biz school Advert



ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • #PandoraPapers
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Opinion
  • The Membership Club
  • DONATE
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • PT Hausa
  • Dubawa NG
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.