Publication: News24
Date: 2006-07-03
Reporter:
Reporter:
Reporter:
|
Patricia Wants Mbeki Probed |
Pretoria
- "It's time to revisit the De Lille Dossier," says Patricia de Lille.
"There is one person named in the original document
who is still not being investigated - President Thabo Mbeki."
Speaking at the Pretoria Press Club on Wednesday, the leader of
the new Independent Democratic Party said: "Now that we have found prima facie evidence (in the dossier), it is about time to
revisit the document."
In 1999, De Lille, then MP for the Pan Africanist
Congress, told parliament that she had information of African National Congress
politicians receiving kickbacks from foreign arms
consortiums.
She passed this information on to the now-defunct
Heath special investigating unit.
De Lille said the dossier showed the
German bid of the Thyssen company for the corvettes and of Ferrestaal for the
submarines was not originally shortlisted in 1995. They reappeared on the list
shortly after a visit by Mbeki to Germany when he was still deputy president.
"Moving from a non-preferred bidder to the winner of
the bid, seems very suspicious.
"This obviously included bribery.
In fact, 3% commission on top of the package had been set
aside by Germany *2.
"The big question is why they (Spanish and
British bidders who complied with all requirements) were left out, even when
they were cheaper than Germany?"
"De Lille said Mbeki misled the public when he said in January 2001 there was no
prima facie evidence to warrant an investigation by the Heath unit into the arms
deal.
"I am still waiting on an explanation about this curious chain of events," De Lille said.
With acknowledgement to News24.
Some very interesting arithmetic :
Contract
Prices
The corvette contract price : R6,873 billion
The
corvette platform price : R4,274 billion
The corvette combat suite
price : R2,599
billion
Commissions
5% *3 of
corvette combat suite price : R129,95 million
*3 according to a Thomson-CSF document there were
allocations in respect of Project Stiron Afrique du Sud for :
- Reserve de management : 5%
- Marge de negociation : 5%
- Compensation IRP*5 : 5,28%
- Compensations : 5%
3% *4 of corvette combat suite
price : R128,22
million
*4 according to de Lille's sources
So it would appear
that both Thyssen and Thomson-CSF each paid about R130 million in bribes couched
as Necessary Expenses.
But there's more :
At the time, the
Deutsche Mark was about DM1,00 = ZAR3,49120
viz :
- Thursday, September 17, 1998
- 1 South African Rand = 0,27560 German Mark
- 1 German Mark (DEM) = 3,62848 South African Rand (ZAR)
- Sunday, February 28, 1999
- 1 South African Rand = 0,28643 German Mark
- 1 German Mark (DEM) = 3,49120 South African Rand (ZAR)
- Friday, December 3, 1999
- 1 South African Rand = 0,31726 German Mark
- 1 German Mark (DEM) = 3,15201 South African Rand (ZAR)
So, based on the 3% and the
applicable rate of exchange, it would appear that Thyssen paid about DM35 to DM
40 million in bribes couched as Necessary Expenses.
But, the interesting
point of all the arithematic is the figure that der Spiegel quotes, i.e. DM30
million - is this figure that which the German investigation itself throws up,
or is this just a figure given to them by de Lille and derived from the 3%
allegation.
*5 Puzzles
Puzzle
1
What does the French acronym IRP mean?
Previously
Disadvantages Individuals (PDIs)?
Puzzle 2
What does
the French acronym NIR mean?
Puzzle 3
From which
project allocation did the French bribes derive: Reserve de management, Marge de
negociation, Compensation IRP or Compensations?