Chemonics International — currently the largest for-profit contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development — has agreed to pay the U.S. government $3.1 million in a settlement agreement related to fraudulent billing by a Nigerian subcontractor for USAID’s global health supply chain project.
The subcontractor, Zenith Carex, is a Nigerian logistics company that Chemonics hired to provide last-mile and long-haul delivery services for cold chain commodities, such as reagents for HIV tests, in Nigeria from 2017 to 2020. In 2020, Chemonics disclosed to the U.S. government that the company had intentionally overbilled for these services, and that those charges had been passed on to USAID.
“This settlement underscores that justice has no borders, and that USAID’s contractors and grantees must have systems in place to detect and prevent false invoices submitted by subawardees,” special agent in charge Sean Bottary of the USAID Office of Inspector General wrote in a statement about the settlement, reached on Thursday.
About the author
Michael Igoe@AlterIgoe
Michael Igoe is a Senior Reporter with Devex, based in Washington, D.C. He covers U.S. foreign aid, global health, climate change, and development finance. Prior to joining Devex, Michael researched water management and climate change adaptation in post-Soviet Central Asia, where he also wrote for EurasiaNet. Michael earned his bachelor's degree from Bowdoin College, where he majored in Russian, and his master’s degree from the University of Montana, where he studied international conservation and development.
