S. Africa joins bribery crackdown
South Africa has said it will sign up to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) convention banning bribery.
It will become the first African signatory of the group.
Those signing up to the pact must implement measures aimed at preventing, detecting and punishing the bribery of foreign officials. The UK Serious Fraud Office is probing payments allegedly made by BAE Systems in South Africa.
Similar probes into BAE's activities in five other countries are also being investigated.
The probe relates to a deal in late 1999, when South Africa ordered an upgrade to its armed services. BAE Systems has said that it is co-operating with the on-going investigation but will not comment on the issues concerned.
Powerful impact
South Africa's former deputy president, Joseph Zuma, is also facing a court case over allegations that he received payments from the French arms company, Thint. Mr Zuma was sacked from the government two years ago when his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was found guilty of corruption in a case that arose from a government arms procurement deal in the 1990s.
The OECD said that since its anti-bribery convention was introduced, there had been a significant growth in the number of investigations and prosecutions for bribery.
Jeffrey Steinberg – via The Peoples Voice.org June 23, 2007
With the U.S. Department of Justice now confirmed to be investigating money laundering and bribery by the British aerospace giant BAE Systems, Congress and the American people must make certain that the investigation does not turn into one more Bush-Cheney-Gonzales coverup. The issue on the table is far bigger than the alleged $2 billion in bribes that BAE Systems paid out to former Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, through the now-defunct Washington, D.C.-based Riggs Bank. As EIR revealed in an exclusive report last week ("Scandal of the Century Rocks British Crown and the City"), at least $80 billion in unaccounted-for loot has been generated by the Al-Yamamah oil-for-jet fighters barter deal, since it was signed in September 1985.
While British news organizations, led by the Guardian and BBC, have published revealing details of BAE bribery and slush funds, involving Prince Bandar, former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and the late Dutch Royal Consort, Prince Bernhard, none of the British media has touched upon the full magnitude of the scandal-the approximately $160 billion in secret oil revenues, generated by the BAE-Saudi Al-Yamamah deal, over the past 22 years (see Table 1 for the year-by-year cash value of the Saudi oil shipments to BAE, through British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, and the British government's Defence Export Sales Organization).
British author William Simpson, who wrote the 2006 authorized biography of Prince Bandar, The Prince-The Secret Story of the World's Most Intriguing Royal, on the other hand, provided authoritative details "right from the prince's mouth" that should be of great interest to American Justice Department and Congressional investigators. What Simpson hinted at is perhaps the biggest covert Anglo-American slush fund in history-one that the author acknowledged had been used to fund clandestine wars, including the Mujahideen's war against the Soviet Army in Afghanistan, and covert military actions in Africa.
Citing his interviews with Tony Edwards, the one-time head of the British government's Defence Export Sales Organization (DESO), which administered the Al-Yamamah project, Simpson wrote:
"Edwards admitted that for the Saudis the use of oil meant that the contract was effectively an off-balance-sheet transaction: it did not go through the Saudi Treasury. Edwards also confirmed that one of the main attractions for the Saudis in this unique arrangement was British flexibility. 'The British were much more flexible than the Americans,' he said. 'The Americans went through the Foreign Military sales system, which has congressional law behind it. If the customers get out of line and they fail to pay the money, then they are cut off. In this country, it was quite flexible; sometimes the oil flow and the associated monies that were received by selling it were ahead, at other times it fell behind.'"
Simpson continued, "The phenomenal amount of money generated from the sale of oil comes through DESO, before being paid to British Aerospace. Edwards admitted that the government does charge a little commission for administering the contract, money that attracted the attention of the Treasury as it built up a considerable surplus."
What neither Edwards nor Simpson chose to point out was the fact that the oil revenues generated from the 600,000 barrels per day that the Saudis paid into the Al-Yamamah fund from 1985 through to the present, amounted to an estimated $160 billion-four times the actual cost of the entire military package delivered by BAE to Saudi Arabia. Nobody in London is talking about where the rest of the money landed-and what it was used for.
Who Runs DESO, and Why?
DESO was established as a British government entity in the mid-1960s, and has been the private domain of Britain's main defense manufacturers and allied financial institutions ever since. Throughout its history, the director of DESO has always been a director of a major British arms manufacturer, responsible for hawking as much business as possible for the Anglo firms.
But beyond the increase in the British portion of the global arms business, DESO also aimed to secure British control over the entirety of the Western arms business, through off-balance-sheet arrangements that would be impossible to pull off under American law. Simpson revealed that, under Al-Yamamah, American and other foreign firms were also allowed to cash in on the deal:
"The Al-Yamamah deal Mrs. Thatcher negotiated placed British Aerospace as the prime contractor for the provision of any other military equipment purchased for Saudi Arabia. 'By supporting not just the British aircraft but the American aircraft too,' said Edwards, 'Al-Yamamah was an integral part of supporting the Saudi Air Force in total.' He stressed that DESO and British Aerospace have thus ended up supporting all Saudi aircraft-the Peace Shield program-all funded through Al-Yamamah. Edwards concluded, 'In other words, the value of this stream of income and what it is used for has drifted a little bit over the years into things other than it was originally destined for.'
"In effect," Simpson admitted, "Al-Yamamah would become a backdoor method of covertly buying U.S. arms for the kingdom; military hardware purchases that would not be visible to Congress. It specifically had been structured to provide an unparalleled degree of flexibility whereby the Saudis could purchase military equipment under the imprimatur of DESO and British Aerospace."
Simpson, who wrote The Prince as virtually a ghost autobiography of the enigmatic Saudi diplomat Prince Bandar, acknowledged that the sheer magnitude of the oil-for-jets deal raised serious questions of corruption.
"The ingenious diversity of Al-Yamamah," he wrote, "together with the British government's discretion and liberal approach to a unique finance deal, largely founded on the undisputed collateral of the huge Saudi oil reserves, could explain the financial black holes assumed by a suspicious media to be evidence of commissions."
But, Simpson explained, "Although Al-Yamamah constitutes a highly unconventional way of doing business, its lucrative spin-offs are the by-products of a wholly political objective: a Saudi political objective and a British political objective. Al-Yamamah is, first and foremost, a political contract. Negotiated at the height of the Cold War, its unique structure has enabled the Saudis to purchase weapons from around the globe to fund the fight against Communism. Al-Yamamah money can be found in the clandestine purchase of Russian ordnance used in the expulsion of Qadaffi's troops from Chad. It can also be traced to arms bought from Egypt and other countries, and sent to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan fighting the Soviet occupying forces."
"Arguably," Simpson admitted, "its consummate flexibility is needed because of inevitable opposition to Saudi arms purchases in Congress.... The oil barter arrangement circumvented such bureaucracy."
Simpson quoted sources close to Bandar, who explained: "What Al-Yamamah did, because it is oil for services, is to say: Okay. Al-Yamamah picks up the tab; Saudi Arabia will sign with the French or whoever, and Britain pays them on their behalf. So suddenly the Saudis now have an operational weapons system complete with its support that doesn't reflect on Al-Yamamah as a project. Therefore, if Saudi Arabia wants some services from the Americans, or some weapons system that they have to buy now, otherwise Congress will object to it later, and they can't get it from their current defense budget, then they simply tell Al-Yamamah, 'You divert that money.' "
Between the more than $80 billion in untraced funds generated through Al-Yamamah, according to EIR's conservative estimate, corroborated by U.S. intelligence sources, and the use of the project as a cover for covert activities around the globe and unauthorized weapons purchases, both the Justice Department and the U.S. Congress have a much bigger series of crimes to probe than the $2 billion in fees allegedly conduited through the Saudi accounts at Riggs Bank. The issue is the British corruption and subversion of American law on a grand scale.
Prince Bandar's ghost writer, William Simpson, has revealed that Al-Yamamah provided off-balance-sheet covert funding for the decade-long Mujahideen covert war to drive the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence sources have independently confirmed that at least some of those funds went to the recruitment and training of foreign Muslim fighters, who were sent to Afghanistan. Some of those fighters, following the Afghan War (1979-90) would later surface in such faraway places as Algeria, the Philippines, Indonesia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, as Islamist insurgents, including members of al-Qaeda.
Simpson also revealed that Al-Yamamah funds went to the purchase of Soviet-made weapons, that were provided to Chad, to drive Libyan forces out of that country. John Bedenkamp, a onetime top aide to Rhodesia's apartheid-era President Ian Smith, and a major arms broker throughout Africa, is currently under investigation by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for his role in BAE arms dealings in South Africa. U.S. intelligence sources have identified Bedenkamp as a conduit for Soviet arms to African insurgents, raising questions about his earlier involvement with the Al-Yamamah project in these weapons deals fueling wars in Africa.
Cheney on the Hot Seat
Washington sources have reported to EIR that the Al-Yamamah revelations have sent shock waves through the City of London. According to one senior U.S. intelligence source, who spoke to EIR on condition of anonymity, "The Al-Yamamah story opens a window into the inner world of Anglo-Dutch financial power. While Al-Yamamah is not the only such off-budget arrangement, it is one of the largest, and it provides a clear picture of a mode of operation-totally outside the control of any government agency, especially the U.S. government. Ultimately, this is a London scandal, not a Riyadh scandal."
One consequence of those shock waves is that Vice President Dick Cheney, according to Washington insiders, is in deep trouble with his London friends. Cheney, the sources report, was the guarantor that the story of the $80-100 billion fund would never see the light of day. And, while the American and British establishment press have attempted to bury the scandal, either through blacking it out altogether, or focusing attention on tertiary features, like the relatively small flow of cash to Prince Bandar, the EIR revelations have saturated the U.S. Congress and have been picked up around the world.
The next chapter is now being written in the scandal of the century, and that could mean the political doom of Dick Cheney. Ironically, it could come at the hands of his own political boosters in the City of London, rather than from Congressional Democrats, who remain divided on the issue of Cheney's impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. Ultimately, the real powers behind the throne in London have very low tolerance for failure.
DAR ES SALAAM business tycoon Tanil Somaiya, a long-time partner of controversial military radar deal agent Shailesh Vithlani, has contacted the governments anti-corruption watchdog to deny any further links between the two.
Well-placed sources confirmed to THISDAY that Somaiya sought out Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) officials sometime last month (September 2007) to inform them that he was no longer doing business in partnership with Vithlani.
According to our sources, Somaiya told the PCCB that he had forfeited his shares in Merlin International Limited and Vithcorp Food Packers, both of which are companies he co-owned with Vithlani.
Insiders say the two companies were used as agents for a string of dubious multi-million dollar government contracts including the purchases of the 28 million pounds sterling (approx. 70bn/-) military radar system, the Gulfstream presidential jet, and fleets of army trucks and helicopters.
Somaiya, through his lawyers, wrote a letter to the PCCB explaining that he was no longer associated with Merlin International and Vithcorp as of January this year, a government source told THISDAY on condition of anonymity.
It has been learnt that apart from telling the PCCB he was no longer in business partnership with Vithlani, Somaiya also sought to distance himself from the controversial deals, saying he had been only a nominal shareholder in the companies while Vithlani had the controlling stake.
He also cleared the air over the ownership of Shivacom group of companies, explaining that he and his wife are the sole owners.
But despite Somaiyas assertions that he has now split up with Vithlani, most of the alleged fishy deals were done when the two were still in partnership.
It has been established that Somaiya and Vithlani, who are both of Asian extraction (with Vithlani holding a British passport), grew up together in Mwanza Region and operated as business partners for many years.
Agents of both the PCCB and Britains Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have been asking questions about the link between the two as part of their parallel investigations into the 2002 radar deal, now reportedly nearing conclusion.
At the heart of both probes are alleged bribe payments amounting to about 30 per cent of the transaction value (approx. 21bn/-), made by British defence manufacturer company BAE Systems to Vithlanis bank account in Switzerland.
BAE Systems is also facing corruption allegations in other international deals.
SFO investigators visited Dar es Salaam last year and interviewed both Vithlani and Somaiya over the deal, and PCCB director general Edward Hosea was recently quoted by Britains Financial Times newspaper as saying criminal charges are expected to be filed against at least one suspect in the deal before the end of the year.
However, Vithlani already a key figure in the probe is understood to have gone on an extended trip out of the country for the time being.
Merlin International Ltd was officially registered in Mwanza on March 27, 1986, with Vithlani (8,000 shares) and Somaiya (2,000 shares) identified as the companys two listed shareholders at the time of its formation.
The company began operating in Mwanza in relative anonymity, dealing in general merchandise and imported goods, before shifting the location of its main offices to Dar es Salaam in August 1998.
It was at this point that the always low-profile company is understood to have begun its meteoric rise by landing a string of big government defence deals.
In January 2007, after Merlin Internationals links to questionable deals with the Tanzanian Government were exposed, Somaiya is said to have withdrawn from the firm leaving Vithlani to continue as owner, chairman and managing director.
*Wamtaka ajibu tuhuma za ufisadi
*Asema hawezi kujitetea, amuomba Dk. Kamala
Na Waandishi Wetu, mikoani
MAWAZIRI wamezidi kukabiliwa na wakati mgumu baada ya kutakiwa kufafanua tuhuma za ufisadi zinazohusisha viongozi wa serikali.
Katika mkutano wa hadhara Uwanja wa Nyosha, Musoma mjini wananchi walimtaka mkuu wa msafara wa mawaziri, Andrew Chege ambaye ni Waziri wa Miundombinu, kujisafisha mbele yao kwa tuhuma za ufisadi zinazomkabili.
Hata hivyo, Chenge alisema hawezi kufanya hivyo kwa kuwa yeye ni mtuhumiwa na hivyo kumtaka Naibu Waziri wa Ushirikiano wa Afrika Mashariki, Dk Diodorus Kamala amsaidie kufafanua juu ya tuhuma hizo za rushwa. Dk Kamala alipanda jukwaani na kuanza kufafanua kwamba hizo ni tuhuma ambazo hazijathibishwa na isingekuwa jambo jema watu kudhani kuwa ni kweli ni mmoja wa kundi la mafisadi .
Alisema Tanzania inaongozwa kwa mujibu wa sheria na kuhoji wananchi itakuwaje kama kila mtuhumiwa akamatwe. Baada ya kauli hiyo wananchi wakasema: "Wapo, mbona tunakamatwa na kufungwa".
Baada ya kupata majibu hayo, ilimbidi Kamala abadili mada na kuingia katika Wizara yake, ambapo alikumbana tena na wakati mgumu kwa kutakiwa aeleze vipi Tanganyika itarudishwa na kuingia katika Shirikisho la Afrika Mashariki bila ya kuwa na Zanzibar.
Kamala alijibu kuwa sera ya Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) si kugawa au kuvunja Muungano. Kutoka Lindi, Mwandishi Wetu anaripoti kuwaWaziri wa Nishati na Madini, Nazir Karamagi juzi alianza ziara katika Mkoa wa Lindi kuelezea mwelekeo wa bajeti ya 2007/08 huku akisisitiza umuhimu wa wananchi kujiunga na vyama vya ushirika. Hata hivyo, Karamagi hakuzungumzia suala la mkataba wa Buzwagi ambao umekuwa ukizua mjadala mkubwa kila kukicha.
Baadaye Karamagi alihutubia katika Uwanja wa Tulieni, ambako nako alisisitiza suala la wananchi kuthamini ushirika na michezo ambapo alitoa mipira mitatu kwa ajili ya kuendeleza michezo. Kutoka Iringa Hakimu Mwafongo, anaripoti kuwa; Madiwani wa Halmashauri ya Manispaa ya Iringa wamelalamikia juu ya ufinyu wa posho katika utendaji kazi wa kila siku na lawama wanazopewa katika utekelezaji shughuli za maendeleo.
Sambamba na malalamiko hayo waliiomba serikali kuongeza posho hiyo kutokana na majukumu waliyonayo katika kutekeleza shughuli za maendeleo kwenye maeneo yao. Diwani wa Kata ya Gangilonga, Manispaa ya Iringa, Edwin Sambala alieleza hayo kwa ujumbe wa Waziri wa Habari Siasa na Utamaduni, Mohamed Seif Khatib aliyeongozana na Naibu Waziri wa Maji, Shamsa Mwangunga kwenye ukumbi wa Siasa ni Kilimo mjini hapa.
Lengo la viongozi hao ni kueleza mipango ya serikali juu ya utekelezaji wa ahadi za viongozi zilizotolewa katika kipindi cha Uchaguzi Mkuu mwaka 2005, ikiwemo ya kuleta maisha bora kwa kila Mtanzania. Sambala alisema ni aibu kwa serikali kuitangazia dunia kuwa imeongeza posho ya madiwani kwa asilimia 100 ambayo ni kutoka Sh30,000 hadi Sh60,000
Alisema wakati wao wanapata Sh 60,000 wabunge wanapata Sh120,000 kwa kikao kimoja na zaidi ya milioni 1.2 kwa mwezi jambo ambalo ni dharau kwa madiwani. Naye Burhani Yakub kutoka Tanga anaripori kuwa, ?
serikali imelalamikiwa kwa kuchelewesha waraka kwenye halmashauri nchini, ili madiwani na wenyeviti waweze kulipwa posho za mwezi pamoja na za vikao kama alivyoahidi Waziri Mkuu, Edward Lowassa katika kikao cha Bunge la Bajeti mwaka huu.
Malalamiko hayo yalitolewa juzi na Meya wa Halmashauri ya Jiji la Tanga, Kassim Kisauji kwa ujumbe wa Mawaziri waliopo mkoani hapa kuifafanua Bajeti ya Serikali ya mwaka 2007/8 iliyopitishwa katika kikao cha Bunge hivi karibuni. Meya huyo ambaye alisema anazungumza kwa niaba ya madiwani, wenyeviti na mameya wa halmashauri nchini, alilalamika kuwa, kitendo cha kucheleweshwa malipo yao kinawaweka njia panda kwa kuwa wanashindwa kujua limekwamia wapi.
Waheshimiwa mawaziri kwa kuwa mmekuja, sisi tunaona ni nafasi pekee ya kutufahamisha nini kimekwamisha na tuamini lipi," alihoji Kisauji. Akijibu swali hilo Waziri wa Maji, Shukuru Kawambwa aliahidi kulifikisha tatizo hilo kwa Waziri wa Serikali za Mitaa na Tawala za Mikoa (Tamisemi), Mizengo Pinda kwa kuwa ndiye mwenye dhamana. Naye Ashton Balaigwa kutoka Kilombero anaripoti kuwa, baadhi ya madiwani katika halmashauri za wilaya ya Ulanga na Kilombero mkoani Morogoro wamelalamikia bajeti ya mwaka 2007/08 kwa kusababisha mfumuko wa bei ya vitu hivyo
kuzidi kumkandamiza mwananchi wa kipato cha chini. Madiwani hao walitoa malalamiko hayo katika ziara za manaibu waziri wa katiba na Sheria, Mathias Chikawe na Naibu waziri ofisi ya waziri mkuu maafa na ukimwi Dk Luka Siyame baada ya kuwahutubia.
" Waheshimiwa manaibu waziri, huu mfumuko wa bei hasa ya mafuta kwa kweli unatuletea malalamiko mengi kutoka kwa wananchi na wamekata tamaa kabisa na serikali yao ,kwani ndio umepandisha kila kitu na hivyo kuendelea kuishi katika hali ya umasikini," walisema. Naye Richard Mwakyambo kutoka Kigoma anaripoti kuwa, viongozi wa serikali mkoani Kigoma wamelaumiwa kwa kushindwa kuwashirikisha viongozi wa Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) katika mikutano ya kufafanua maagizo kutoka ngazi za juu za utawala hivyo kuwapa wakati mgumu kukinadi chama hicho.
Lawama hizo zilitolewa na Katibu wa CCM Wilaya ya Kigoma Vijijini, Hadija Kusaga katika kikao cha viongozi wa chama na serikali chini ya Naibu Waziri wa Miundombinu, Dk Makongoro Mahanga na Naibu Waziri wa Mambo ya Ndani, Dk Lawrence Masha.
Kusaga alisema kukosekana kwa ushirikiano kati ya watendaji wa serikali na viongozi wa CCM katika kufikisha ujumbe, kuweka ufa kati ya makundi hayo mawili katika kutekeleza majukumu na ilani ya chama hicho ya uchaguzi. Kutoka Tabora, Robert Kakwesi, anaripoti kuwa, Mkoa wa Tabora huenda ukapata kiwanda cha kutengeneza Saruji endapo mipango ya kukijenga itakamilika katika kipindi kifupi kijacho.
Waziri wa Nchi ofisi ya Waziri Mkuu (Bunge na Uratibu), Dk Batilda Burian aliwaambia wakazi wa Wilaya ya Sikonge kuwa tayari mazungumzo yamefanywa kati ya serikali na Kampuni ya Saruji ya Twiga ili kuwekeza mkoani humo kwa kujenga kiwanda hicho. Vilevile alisema serikali ina mpango wa kujenga barabara ya Nzega hadi Tabora na ya Sikonge kwenda Ipole hadi Kitunda kwa Sh1bilioni.
Kutoka Mbozi Hawa Mathias anaripoti kuwa, wakazi wilayani Mbozi walimshukuru Rais Jakaya Kikwete kwa kutoa mabilioni kwa ajili ya wajasiriamali, ingawa hayajawafikia. Kauli hiyo waliitoa jana katika kikao na Naibu Waziri wa Ardhi, Nyumba na Maendeleo, Ritha Mlaki. " Kwa kweli tunaishukuru serikali yetu kwa mkopo wa mabilioni ya Kikwete, lakini mtambue kuwa hayakutufikia walengwa, "alisema Polepole Mwashilindi.
Pamoja na mambo mengine, wakazi hao waliwataka viongozi wa kitaifa kufika vijijini ambako walidai umasikini umekithiri na kuwafanya wananchi wawe na maisha magumu.