Feasibility Study
An employee of an international donor submitted an application to engage a consultant to prepare a feasibility study for a proposed project to import natural gas from a neighboring country. The study was approved at an estimated cost of almost $500,000.
The employee conducted a sham “competition” for the study and selected a supposed small local firm as the most qualified. The “firm” was a shell company set up by the donor employee under a fictitious name. The employee prepared the feasibility study from materials already in his possession and information clipped from the internet, for which he was paid the full contract amount. The scheme was discovered when the employee’s manager unexpectedly asked to review the report (which was not typically the case), discovered its very poor cut and paste quality and referred the matter to investigators.