Publication: Business Day Issued: Date: 2008-08-11 Reporter: Chris van Gass Reporter:

Why Stall on Arms Deal Documents? ­ DA

 

Publication 

Business Day
Date 2008-08-11
Reporter Chris van Gass
Web Link www.bday.co.za

 

Government ignores opposition application to see what questions UK, Germany asked in their corruption probes

Cape Town ­ The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday questioned the government's reluctance to hand over key documents relating to investigations into the arms deal by British and German authorities. These would shed light on whether kickbacks were paid as part of the deal, the DA said.

The reaction came on the day the Sunday Times repeated allegations of a R30m bribe being paid to President Thabo Mbeki, which the president has denied.

The newspaper cited failed offset deals involving German company MAN Ferrostaal, which won a R6bn contract to supply new submarines.

MAN Ferrostaal has denied making any payments to Mbeki, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma or any other people in the party. It said the offset projects, which formed part of the submarine contract, saved and created thousands of jobs in SA.

Independent Democrats (ID) president Patricia de Lille said yesterday her party was not surprised by the latest allegations that the government had not penalised MAN Ferrostaal for failing to deliver on its promised offsets for its share in the multibillion-rand arms deal.

"Many of these allegations are contained in the De Lille dossier and the ID has been vindicated," she said.

The dossier, which had been tabled in Parliament in September 1999, had led to the successful prosecution of Tony Yengeni and Schabir Shaik, as well as to charges being brought against Zuma, she said.

The DA's spokesman on the arms deal, Eddie Trent, said the party submitted two applications in June in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act to the justice department to gain access to the mutual legal assistance (MLA) agreements between SA and the UK and Germany on their investigations into the allegations of arms deal corruption.

The DA's action followed a decision by German prosecutors to drop their investigation into German companies' alleged involvement in arms deal irregularities, apparently because of the failure by the South African government to provide them with "critical information".

Trent said the MLA documents would set out "exactly what SA was asked to provide in order to assist with these investigations". To date, both applications had been ignored , Trent said. "The required period for reply has long expired, and on this basis the DA has launched appeals on both applications."

Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad rejected allegations that it was the South African government's lack of cooperation that led to the Germans dropping the case.

Pahad also said the department, "after corresponding with the prosecutor's office", was awaiting further details from the German authorities, including the names of alleged suspects and what assistance might be required .

Trent questioned the government's reluctance to hand over the MLA documents if there were no irregular dealings with the Germans and the British.

Trent said replies to three parliamentary questions received by the DA last week indicated that the state believed no irregularities occurred during the arms procurement.

He said the DA would ensure that the government investigated "any new evidence" .

With acknowledgements to Chris van Gass and Business Day.


The logic is simple, if none of the SA Government, Thyssen and Ferrostaal claim to be entirely innocent of any wrongdoing in the Arms Deal, then they should have absolutely no compunction about releasing any documents and records about the corvette and submarine deals into the public domain, including any relevant financial and tax information.

If there is any truly sensitive commercial information it can protected by severence in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act in South Africa or the Freedom of Information Act in Germany.

But this is unlikely as the information will be nearly ten years old and is unlikely to have any residue of commercial and/or competitive value.

On the other hand, if any record plausibly indicates any misconduct or unlawfulness, and now that the German and South African Governments have abandoned their investigations into Ferrostaal and Thyssen, then in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act in South Africa and/or the Freedom of Information Act in Germany, the German and South African Governments are obliged to give unrestricted access to whoever may request it.

In the case of Thyssen at least and having seen some of the MLA documents, it is clear that the German investigators verily believe that Thyssen at least was involved in misconduct or unlawfulness regarding the corvette platform contract.

Part of the information and presumably the records that the German investigators in Dusseldorf have are a raft of documents relating to the involvement of Chippy Shaik asking for and receiving a bribe of US$3 million to ensure that the GFC pipped Bazan in the final selection.

A careful arithmetic and chronological analysis of the corvette selection process also clearly shows a manipulation of the criteria by inter alia Chippy Shaik himself to ensure that the GFC pipped Bazan in the final selection. This in itself should be entirely adequate grounds for getting full access to the records gathered by the German investigating and prosecuting authorities in Dusseldorf.

An analysis of the submarine selection process also shows a manipulation of the criteria to ensure that the GSC pipped its competitors in the final selection. This in itself should be entirely adequate grounds for getting full access to the records gathered by the German investigating and prosecuting authorities in Essen.

If any party balks at giving access to the Thyssen and/or Ferrostaal corvette and submarine documents, then this in itself is the clearest indicator of misconduct and unlawfulness in the acquisition processes.

Herewith ends the lesson.