Companies
BAE provided "support services" to Saudi officials
BAE Systems, the arms manufacturer dogged by bribery
allegations, paid for and provided “support services” to Saudi Arabian officials
as part of the Al-Yamamah arms deal, documents released under freedom of
information laws have revealed.
An official account from the attorney general’s office
refers to a letter from BAE’s solicitors to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO),
which confirmed provision was made for supplying support services to Saudi
officials. The letter did not, however, specify what these services were.
Last year the SFO controversially dropped an investigation
into allegations that BAE bribed Saudi officials to secure an arms deal. Many
attributed this decision to pressure from the prime minister’s office, and among
those to express concern was the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development.
The difficulty the investigation found, according to the
attorney general’s office, was the extent to which these payments were made with
the consent of the ultimate Saudi “customer” or principal. In this case, it was
reported, the question presented a particular challenge to a successful
prosecution because of the problems of establishing, within the context of Saudi
constitutional arrangements, what authorisation had been given and at what
level.
The editorial in the Financial Times (10 April) suggested Continental
Europeans and Americans are beginning to detect the smell of hypocrisy in the
UK’s record on prosecuting corruption as compared to its “condescending
rhetoric”.
For instance, said the FT, while the UK has traditionally
derided Germany for its Rhineland corporatism, the country has recently
demonstrated a vigour in its prosecutions, particularly of Siemens. As opposed
to this, noted the FT, since the 2001 law criminalising bribery of overseas
public officials, not one successful prosecution has been brought in the UK.
However, added the FT, the UK is not the only country that
has failed to implement anti-bribery laws, and there is an urgent need to
enforce, and expand membership of, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development and United Nations anti-bribery conventions. The FT argued that
while completely eradicating corruption may be unrealistic, making the world
less hospitable to criminals is not.
Links
BAE Systems
Serious Fraud Office
Financial Times
May 2007
|
