Corruption is a Crime

Following up yesterday’s story about Vince Cable’s boycott of the Saudi state visit, here’s a link to his article in The Independent in which he expands on his decision:

The British government should not have offered the accolade of a state visit to the head of a regime which is authoritarian and deeply corrupt. Our own Foreign Office has described Saudi Arabia, without hyperbole, as follows: “Women are subject to discrimination. Prisoners suffer maltreatment and torture. Capital punishment is imposed without adequate safeguards and often executed in a cruel way and in public. Amputations are imposed as corporal punishment … We also have concerns about freedom of expression, assembly and religion.” British expatriates have been tortured to extract false confessions of involvement in terrorism.
[...]
Trade, too, is beneficial but not at any price and not if it is lubricated by bribery and government subsidy. The massive Al Yamamah arms contract, spanning two decades, has left a deep stain on British public life. Conservative and Labour governments have been complicit in large-scale corruption. Our legal system has been compromised by a refusal, under Saudi pressure, to pursue fraud investigations. Parliament has been compromised by the suppression of a Public Accounts Committee inquiry, which could embarrass the Saudis – the only such report thus suppressed in the history of parliament.

Read the full article here.

Vince Cable MP, the Acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, is to boycott the state visit of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia to the United Kingdom. According to the BBC:

Mr Cable says he will not attend any of the planned ceremonial events - as would be normal for the leader of one of the main opposition parties.

Mr Cable told the BBC’s Today programme that by any assessment of Saudi Arabia, “the human rights record is appalling”.

He also cited the regime’s arms deal with the British firm BAE and the row over alleged corruption surrounding it.

The International Herald Tribune quotes from Vince Cable’s letter to the Saudi ambassador:

“I have introduced three debates in Parliament this year expressing serious concerns over the al-Yamamah contract and the corruption allegedly involved. I have, in my arguments, also been very critical of members of the Saudi royal family and the Saudi record on human rights, including its maltreatment of British citizens,” the letter said.

“In my opinion, it is quite wrong for the British government to have proposed a state visit at this time. Therefore, it would, I believe, be inappropriate for me to participate in a ceremonial state visit against this background.”

Read more from:

• The Herald
• The Guardian
• ITN
• ePolitix.com

A couple of weeks ago, we reported that Lib Dem MP Norman Baker had called for the resignation of Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office, after Sir John ran up significant expenses bills on public money and accepted hospitality from companies including BAE Systems.

It’s now been announced that Sir John will stand down, retiring in January. His decision has been welcomed by Norman Baker:

“Sir John Bourn has made the correct decision and he should be thanked for the work he has done. But the next incumbent cannot end up in a position where he embarrasses the National Audit Office through expenses claims and perceived conflicts of interest.”

BAE Systems has being accused of paying hush money to two Australian airlines, the Daily Mail reports:

In a House of Lords debate, Lord Tyler pointed the finger at the defence company over a 14-year secret deal between British Aerospace Regional Aircraft, East West Airlines and Ansett Transport Industries.

The Liberal Democrat peer claimed a leaked document signed in 1993 shows BAE paid the airlines £329,000 to silence them about ‘the leak of toxic fumes into aircraft cabins’.

Lord Tyler’s questions and the Government’s responses are available on the TheyWorkForYou website here.

The Government has killed off the Corruption Bill without any debate in the House of Commons. The Bill aimed to tighten to rules on British companies operating abroad, and was necessary to meet treaty obligations to fight corruption and bribery.

The Corruption Bill was introduced by Lord Chidgey and passed successfully through all of its legislative stages in the House of Lords, but the deadline has now passed for it to be given time in the House of Commons.

David Heath MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Justice Minister, strongly criticised the Labour Government’s failure to allow the Bill to be debated.

“It is a constitutional outrage that a bill passed by one House has not been given a second of parliamentary time in the Commons. It shows a complete lack of respect for the upper house.

“This Bill would form a key part of what ought to be the British Government’s legal protections against corrupt practices. It incorporates changes which are not only necessary for Britain to comply with its international obligations but also covers areas which Hilary Benn, when he was responsible for anti-corruption measures, said were important and urgent.

“Not to proceed with anti-corruption legislation is part of an emerging picture which, taken with the shameful decision to discontinue investigating BAE’s Al Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia, smacks of indifference at best or complicity at worst with dodgy dealing by British firms abroad.”

An intriguing tangent to the BAE/Al Yamamah arms deal affair has come to light.

The National Audit Office has revealed that its head, Comptroller and Auditor General Sir John Bourn, has run up significant expenses bills - paid for by the taxpayer - and has also received corporate hospitality from various sources.

One of these is BAE Systems, who paid for Sir John to attend the British Grand Prix during the summer. Sir John has previously refused to release the NAO’s own report into BAE’s Al Yamamah deal.

As a result of these revelations, Norman Baker MP, the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, has called on Sir John to resign, saying:

“It is incredible that Sir John Bourn has seen fit to run up gigantic bills for largesse at the taxpayers’ expense.

“Even more serious is appearing to accept hospitality from companies such as BAE which compromises the independent and professional standing essential to someone in this post.

“The time has come for him to call it a day in the interests of good administration.”

“The City of London has become the number-one home for the fruits of corruption,” said Laurence Cockcroft, director of Transparency International UK on the publication of their latest index of corruption around the world.

As the New Statesman reports:

We may associate the word corruption with Russian oligarchs and African republics run by venal government officials, yet according to the watchdog, Transparency International, the world capital of dirty money is not Moscow or Mogadishu. It is London.

You can read the full story here.