GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS (PROTECTION) ACT, 1979

(1) A person who is responsible for the issue of a certificate on the basis of which money is paid out of public funds to or for the benefit of a contractor or any other person in respect of a Government contract, is jointly and severally liable with that contractor or any other person for the refund of the money so paid, to the Government, the statutory corporation or any other agent of the Government by or on behalf of which the money was paid or to any other authority directed in writing by the Government. (2) Subsection (1) applies (a) where the person responsible for the issue of the certificate issued the certificate for the payment (i) knowing that the work or service for which the payment was made or the goods for the supply of which the payment was made has not been performed or have not been supplied or that the money was not otherwise due under the contract, or (ii) recklessly careless, whether the work had been done or not or the goods supplied or not, or whether the money was otherwise due under the contract or not; or (b) where in the issue of the certificate that person was grossly negligent.

(1) Without prejudice to the civil liability created by section 1, a person whose conduct falls within that section and the contractor and any other person who knowingly accepts a payment made in any of the circumstances described in that section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding three times the amount of money of the improper payment or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding ten years, or to both the fine and the imprisonment. (2) Where in the case of a payment effected in any of the circumstances described in section 1 it is proved (a) that the person responsible for the certificate was bribed into issuing the certificate, or (b) that the issue of the certificate was otherwise attended by a corrupt practice, both the person who gave the bribe and the person who accepted it and any other person who knowingly participated in the bribery or the corrupt practice commits an offence and is liable (c) to a term of imprisonment not less than five years and not more than fifteen years, and (d) to a penalty equal to three times the amount of money of the improper payment.