Date:13/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/13/stories/2007061303431400.htm

International

BAE move a whitewash, say critics

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: BAE Systems, the British arms company at the centre of a multi-million pounds bribery scandal, has appointed an independent committee, headed by the former Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, to monitor its ethical standards in what is seen as a bid to save its international reputation following a wave of allegations about its trade practices.

The move came days after The Guardian and the BBC revealed that the BAE paid Ł1 billion in bribes to win a Ł43-billion defence contract from Saudi Arabia in 1985.

MoD in the know

It is alleged that the payments, staggered over a period of 10 years, were made with the "full knowledge'' of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and were meant for Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a prominent member of the Saudi royal family and a former Ambassador to America with close ties to the Bush family.

The Prince has denied receiving any improper payments for personal benefit arguing that the money paid into an American bank account was a "Saudi government account and not my personal account''. The BAE claims that it "acted lawfully at all times''.

If the BAE had hoped to stem the tide of damaging publicity by announcing the appointment of a scrutiny committee it must have been disappointed as critics dismissed the move as a "whitewash'' and insisted on an independent inquiry into the Saudi deal.

The inquiry, they said, should include the Government's role in "suppressing'' the truth, especially Prime Minister Tony Blair's controversial decision to call off a criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the bribery scandal.

According to media reports, the Woolf committee's remit would be "prospective'' and it would not look at BAE's dealings in the past.

Anti-corruption campaigners said they would continue to press for an independent probe both into BAE's practices and the Government's alleged complicity in the bribery case.