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| Auditor-General's
report tabled in Parliament |
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A-G's
presentation & opposition reactions
Grand-standing and
conflicts of interest -November
15, 2001, 07:47 PM
By Paul Stober
The South African government has been cleared of charges of
widespread corruption in the awarding of contracts for its
strategic arms procurement package, however the arrest of
corrupt officials is set to continue and the deal is likely to
stay before the courts for quite some time.
While clearing the government of widespread corruption,
Bulelani Ngcuka, head of the National Directorate of Public
Prosecutions (NDPP), warns: The area of conflict of interest
of government officials is cause for concern and is viewed as
extremely serious. We will be taking action within the next 24
hours.
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Conflict of interests
Ngcuka absolutely refuses to say anything more, however the
joint report of the investigation by independent state agencies
into the allegations of corruption in the arms deal, fingers
Chippy Shaik, the Head of Acquisitions for the Department
of Defence, for a conflict of interest. The report
concludes that Shaik, whose brother has interests in the Thomson
Group and African Defence Systems (ADS) - companies that won
contracts to provide weapons suites to the navy for its new
ships - did not recuse himself properly from the tender
process.
Richard Young, the chairman of C2I2, a rival company who lost
out to Thomson and ADS, who has threatened to sue the government
because he was not awarded certain contracts, is leaving his
options open about whether or not to pursue legal action.
Presently, he is studying the report before deciding a course of
action.
Cars and corruption
Ngcuka has already charged Tony Yengeni, the former ANC Chief
Whip, with fraud and corruption - after he allegedly promised
the European Aeronautics Defence Systems (EADS) that he would
influence the procurement process in their favour. The case is
due to come up in court again, early next year.
Michael Woerfel, former head of EADS in Southern Africa, has
been charged with Yengeni. German prosecutors are also
investigating whether he broke that countrys anti-corruption
laws. If they find he has, the German government can take steps
to cancel the contracts it has been awarded.
Terry Crawford-Browne, of Economists Allied for Arms Reduction
(ECAAR) indicates that his organisation will probably go ahead
with court action aimed at forcing government to drop its plans
to buy the weapons. In a nutshell, ECAAR is arguing that given
the gravity of poverty facing the country, the government has no
right to spend money on weapons. Crawford-Browne says their
lawyers will obviously consider the results of the report by the
agencies, but the court papers are ready and he doubts the
outcome of the investigation will change anything.
Government to press on
Despite the threat of court cases and further arrests by the
NDPP, government is taking the report as a green-light to
go-ahead with the arms deal. The decisions of the
acquisitions process stand - there will be no further review,
says Mosioua Lekota, the minister of defence. Besides clearing
the arms deal of widespread corruption, the report also says the
governments costing of the package and its procurement
procedures were sufficient and on par with other countries -
even if there were breaches.
Trevor Manuel, the finance minister, and Penuell Maduna, the
justice minister, were visibly annoyed that government had been
forced to appoint an investigation into the deal when many of
the allegations had proven to be baseless.
Maduna slammed those who had promised to bring hard evidence of
widespread corruption in the deal - and then failed to present
the investigation with anything substantial. He named Patricia
de Lille, the PAC MP who had first raised allegations of
wrong-doing in the allocation of contracts, as one of these.
Opposition grand-standing
However, initial reaction by political parties indicate they are
less interested in the truth, than in political grand-standing.
The DA staged a walk-out of the special Parliamentary briefing
where the report was presented to MPs, claiming it falls far
short of the specific formal accountability arrangements that
are expected for a briefing of this nature.
The PAC described the report as a "white-wash and a sad
cover-up". De Lille, again seemingly without evidence, is
reported to have said she was sure the version of the report
released had been sanitised.
The investigation was run by the Office of the Auditor-General,
the National Directorate of Public Prosecution and the Public
Protectors Office. The three have dismissed all allegations that
their investigation was not thorough or that the final report
was influenced by the executive.
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