Publication: Sapa Issued: Cape Town Date: 2006-07-03 Reporter: Ben Maclennan Reporter: Reporter:

Corvette Probe Not My Business: Navy Chief

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-NAVY-CORVETTES

Issued

Cape Town
Date 2006-07-03

Reporter

 Ben Maclennan

 

SA Navy Chief Vice Admiral Johannes Mudimu is not losing any sleep over the latest corruption allegations over the tender process for its German-built corvettes.

He said on Tuesday the Navy had merely stated its requirements *1, and the matter had been taken forward from there.

"Who goes and gets a tender from which country, the Navy is not involved in that regard *2," he told Sapa in Cape Town.

A German magazine earlier reported it was suspected that R133-million may have been paid in bribes to the Thyssen shipbuilding consortium and then concealed in the shipbuilders' accounts as "expenses".

The Duesseldorf prosecutor's office has confirmed it is undertaking an enquiry into the allegations.

Asked if the renewed possibility of fraud in the tender process was not a potential embarrassment to the Navy, Mudimu said many other navies operated the same way as the South African Navy, specifying what was required to protect the country.

"We have done that. We have said we needed surface combatants, we needed anti-surface ability *3. We got all those things *4, so we are going to use those assets to better protect our country and to ensure that our people are trained in that effect," he said.

"What happens beyond that I think are the issues that the minister [of defence, Mosiuoa Lekota] can handle."

Mudimu said far from losing sleep over the issue, he was "very happy" over the progress the Navy has made as a result of the arms deal.

"We have the first woman submariner, many of our youngsters were trained in Germany in terms of the new corvettes. So the Navy is doing what it's supposed to do in terms of these aspects," he said.

"In terms of other issues that you are talking about, I have little [of] value to comment about."

With acknowledgement to Ben Maclennan and Sapa.


*1       Not only.

In the case of the Corvette Combat Suite, the SA Navy stipulated its requirements and then allowed these to be superseded by the supplier's own specifications and bargaining position.


*2      Not correct.

In the case of the Corvette, the bidding phase of the acquisition was managed by a high-level Project Control Board and lower-level Joint Project Team. The SA Navy had at least thirty members on these forum with ranks from Lt Commander up to Vice Admiral, including the former Chief of the Navy and Chief Director of Naval Warfare.


*3      Not only.

In the case of the Corvette Combat Suite, the SA Navy stipulated both anti-surface and anti-submarine requirements and then allowed the latter to be sacrificed on the altar of Thomson-CSF's and ADS's hard bargaining table, clearly with top cover from Chippy Shaikh, Jacob Zuma, Joe Modise and Thabo Mbeki.


*4      Not correct.

In the case of the "Corvette", the SA Navy got from Germany in 2006 (handover to SA Navy date) a MEKO 200SA frigate with about 50% of its original requirements at about 200% of the price it could could have got for a Bazan 590B frigate from Spain in 1999 (handover to SA Navy date).

If one does the arithmetic that a bum deal by a factor of four (4).

This is either one ignorant or less than honest Chief of the Navy.