Corruption is a Crime

The Guardian’s BAE investigators David Leigh and Rob Evans have hit back at BAE, which had previously dismissed their reports of an impending anti-corruption investigation into the company by the United States.

BAE’s chief executive, Mike Turner, is eating his words today, only days after trying to dismiss the Guardian’s accurate prediction that the arms giant would face a criminal investigation in Washington.

Named as a potential corruption suspect himself in the Serious Fraud Office BAE dossiers, Mr Turner told a Sunday paper the only reason the SFO had begun its previous investigation was because of allegations in the British media.

The article goes on to note that Lord Goldsmith is likely to avoid serious questions about his role in the affair as Attorney General by standing down as part of the change of Prime Minister today. The whole article is worth a read - but we naturally liked this bit:

The Liberal Democrats, the only British political party with clean hands in the massive 20-year al-Yamamah Saudi arms programme, were quick to see the implications today.

They put down an urgent question: “What role does the government intend to play in assisting the US department of justice in the investigation which it has announced today into alleged corruption by BAE Systems?”

The Lib Dem frontbencher Vince Cable said: “It is extraordinary and embarrassing that we have to rely on the higher standards of probity in the United States to investigate alleged corruption by a British company in its overseas business operations.

“One of the most important challenges facing Gordon Brown is to alter the sleazy behaviour of the outgoing Blair administration and ensure that this government is committed to higher ethical standards and the rule of law.”

Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, will be questioned about his role in the Al Yamamah/BAE affair by the House of Commons’ constitutional affairs committee, the Guardian reports.

The hearing is expected later this month while Tony Blair is still prime minister. The committee, chaired by the Lib Dem Alan Beith, will also question the head of the SFO, Robert Wardle. MPs decided to summon the two men at a private meeting in Westminster last week.

The Leader of the Liberal Democrats has labelled Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, as “politically inept” over the information given to the OECD regarding BAE Systems.

Responding to a letter he received today from Lord Goldsmith, Ming Campbell said:

“These events get curiouser and curiouser.

“Major decisions involving relevant information to the OECD were taken by officials and not by those with direct ministerial responsibility.

“The plain unvarnished truth is that Britain did not reveal significant information to the OECD. Not only was this a lack of candour but it was politically inept since the information was bound to come out eventually.

“These events make yet another powerful case for transparency and more effective scrutiny by Parliament. It will be an irony if the United States Congress gets more information into the public domain than Parliament.”

Following the reports in The Guardian about the Attorney General (Lord Goldsmith) and the failure to disclose secret payments to a Saudi prince to an OECD anti-corruption probe into the Al Yamamah arms deal, Liberal Democrat Ming Campbell has called on Lord Goldsmith to explain what has really happened:

If it is true that information about payments made to Prince Bandar was not given to the OECD, then that is an allegation of the utmost seriousness. It would be unsupportable for Britain to sign up to an international agreement on bribery and then fail to honour its obligations when an investigation comes too close to home.

That’s what The Guardian is claiming today regarding the Al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia:

British investigators were ordered by the attorney-general Lord Goldsmith to conceal from international anti-bribery watchdogs the existence of payments totalling more than £1bn to a Saudi prince.

The story also goes on to say:

The Guardian’s disclosure of British government complicity in the alleged payment of £1bn to [Saudi Arabian] Prince Bandar caused international concern yesterday … Neither Mr Blair nor the Ministry of Defence made any attempt to deny the allegations revealed by the Guardian.

The background is that the £1 billion payments are alleged to have been bribes to ensure that Saudi Arabia purchsed arms from the UK - through the Al Yamamah arms deal - rather than from other countries.