Dunno how much coverage this is getting. Interesting though.
The arms deal, the agent and the Swiss bank account
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]British police track down businessman who arranged secret commission payment[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT] Behind the sultry languor of Coco Beach and the nonchalant good nature of ordinary Tanzanians, there lies an unexpected climate of fear in Dar es Salaam.The head of the anti-corruption bureau, Edward Hoseah, goes nowhere without bodyguards. One government contractor says: "Our position here is too vulnerable to be seen talking." A European from an NGO says: "They'll throw me out if I go public". And one knowledgeable journalist claims: "If I put my name on the radar story, I could be killed."
It is hard to judge how much of this paranoia is justified. But down Samora Avenue in Dar es Salaam, just across from the ferry terminal to Zanzibar, is an obscure office in the old Avalon cinema building, to which British police have traced the man behind a mystery.
There is no name on the street entrance, just a gap where a nameplate has been unscrewed. But up the stairs to a dingy first floor, there is a door with "Vithcorp Food Packers" on it. Behind is a tiny office. It belongs to Sailesh Vithlani, a plump 42-year-old of Indian extraction. He has a UK passport, and a mother and brother in south London, but in Tanzania he is a power in the land.
He will not comment on reports that he was the commission agent on recent deals to sell Bell helicopters and Iveco lorries to the Tanzanian military. But his business partner, Tanil Somaiya, is more forthcoming. The two are best friends, he says, and grew up together in Mwanza, near Lake Victoria. Mr Somaiya, who runs a mobile phone company and a security firm, confirms that Mr Vithlani was the agent on many military deals, including the Gulfstream jet sold to President Benjamin Mkapa in 2002.
The G550 Special Purpose 18-seater is the longest-range business jet in the world. It can fly 6,700 miles non-stop, and Tanzania acquired the latest model, new off the production line for more than $40m (£21m). This caused some comment in a country where life expectancy is only 43 years, the poorest third of the population live on less than a dollar a day, and 45% of public spending is provided by western donors.
But even more controversy will be provoked by Mr Vithlani's admission that in the same period he was the agent who arranged for $12m to be secretly paid by the UK arms company BAE into a Swiss bank account, in return for the purchase by the Tanzanian government of an overpriced military radar.
The Plessey Commander fighter control system was assembled by a BAE subsidiary on the Isle of Wight for a country that is reported to have only eight operational warplanes. The scheme was dogged by corruption accusations. In 1995, when it was first mooted, the Tanzanian central bank refused to pledge the country's gold reserves to cover the cost, and the plan was dropped.
After the death of the long-serving former president Julius Nyerere the deal was revived, with the offer of a loan from Barclays Bank. This time, it was officials of the World Bank who blew the whistle. The country was negotiating at the time to be forgiven $3bn of foreign debt. The World Bank protested that the radar system, with its sophisticated anti-jamming devices, was unnecessary and wildly expensive. A report said a modest civil air traffic control system could be bought for a quarter of the price.
Clare Short, then development secretary, said the deal could be corrupt and wanted it blocked. Her opposition split the British cabinet. There was a chorus of claims from those involved that the deal was squeaky clean. Mr Mkapa said: "No one has given me an iota of evidence about corruption." Downing Street insisted that "there is no evidence to support this assessment".
BAE claimed to be outraged. Its spokesman was reported as saying: "We won the contract in open competition and it was completely above board. We operate a global company in a very above-board manner, which is the way we have to work nowadays. Everything is becoming more transparent."
Investigators from the Serious Fraud Office, who have been blocked by Downing Street from investigating BAE's Swiss bank transactions linked to the Saudi royal family, have now returned to the federal prosecutor's office in Berne, sources say. This time, they want to know what happened to BAE's Tanzanian money.
Blair's role
The extent of Tony Blair's personal involvement in the Tanzania deal is charted from beyond the grave in The Point of Departure, the memoirs of former foreign secretary Robin Cook.
In December 2001 BAE, then chaired by Sir Dick Evans, lobbied Downing Street, claiming 280 jobs on the Isle of Wight might be at risk. Mr Cook, ousted from his position a few weeks earlier, recorded in his dairy: "Buttonholed by Clare Short, who is full of her latest struggle to prevent the licence."
The cabinet divided on departmental lines. The MoD pushed BAE's case. Jack Straw, the new foreign secretary, fell in with No 10. Patricia Hewitt, at the DTI, said she did not want to quarrel with Blair. Short was only backed by Gordon Brown, and eventually lost.
Blair's intervention on behalf of BAE was leaked to the Guardian. Cook saw him the next day. "He is very exercised with Clare Short briefing the Guardian ... I say 'Hats off to Clare, she reads all the telegrams and knows what is happening'. He responds 'Thanks, but I'll keep my hat on all the same'."
Cook notes: "I came to learn that the chairman of BAE appeared to have the key to the garden door to No 10. Certainly I never knew No 10 to come up with any decision that would be incommoding to BAE."
The arms deal, the agent and the Swiss bank account
[FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]British police track down businessman who arranged secret commission payment[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT] Behind the sultry languor of Coco Beach and the nonchalant good nature of ordinary Tanzanians, there lies an unexpected climate of fear in Dar es Salaam.The head of the anti-corruption bureau, Edward Hoseah, goes nowhere without bodyguards. One government contractor says: "Our position here is too vulnerable to be seen talking." A European from an NGO says: "They'll throw me out if I go public". And one knowledgeable journalist claims: "If I put my name on the radar story, I could be killed."
It is hard to judge how much of this paranoia is justified. But down Samora Avenue in Dar es Salaam, just across from the ferry terminal to Zanzibar, is an obscure office in the old Avalon cinema building, to which British police have traced the man behind a mystery.
There is no name on the street entrance, just a gap where a nameplate has been unscrewed. But up the stairs to a dingy first floor, there is a door with "Vithcorp Food Packers" on it. Behind is a tiny office. It belongs to Sailesh Vithlani, a plump 42-year-old of Indian extraction. He has a UK passport, and a mother and brother in south London, but in Tanzania he is a power in the land.
He will not comment on reports that he was the commission agent on recent deals to sell Bell helicopters and Iveco lorries to the Tanzanian military. But his business partner, Tanil Somaiya, is more forthcoming. The two are best friends, he says, and grew up together in Mwanza, near Lake Victoria. Mr Somaiya, who runs a mobile phone company and a security firm, confirms that Mr Vithlani was the agent on many military deals, including the Gulfstream jet sold to President Benjamin Mkapa in 2002.
The G550 Special Purpose 18-seater is the longest-range business jet in the world. It can fly 6,700 miles non-stop, and Tanzania acquired the latest model, new off the production line for more than $40m (£21m). This caused some comment in a country where life expectancy is only 43 years, the poorest third of the population live on less than a dollar a day, and 45% of public spending is provided by western donors.
But even more controversy will be provoked by Mr Vithlani's admission that in the same period he was the agent who arranged for $12m to be secretly paid by the UK arms company BAE into a Swiss bank account, in return for the purchase by the Tanzanian government of an overpriced military radar.
The Plessey Commander fighter control system was assembled by a BAE subsidiary on the Isle of Wight for a country that is reported to have only eight operational warplanes. The scheme was dogged by corruption accusations. In 1995, when it was first mooted, the Tanzanian central bank refused to pledge the country's gold reserves to cover the cost, and the plan was dropped.
After the death of the long-serving former president Julius Nyerere the deal was revived, with the offer of a loan from Barclays Bank. This time, it was officials of the World Bank who blew the whistle. The country was negotiating at the time to be forgiven $3bn of foreign debt. The World Bank protested that the radar system, with its sophisticated anti-jamming devices, was unnecessary and wildly expensive. A report said a modest civil air traffic control system could be bought for a quarter of the price.
Clare Short, then development secretary, said the deal could be corrupt and wanted it blocked. Her opposition split the British cabinet. There was a chorus of claims from those involved that the deal was squeaky clean. Mr Mkapa said: "No one has given me an iota of evidence about corruption." Downing Street insisted that "there is no evidence to support this assessment".
BAE claimed to be outraged. Its spokesman was reported as saying: "We won the contract in open competition and it was completely above board. We operate a global company in a very above-board manner, which is the way we have to work nowadays. Everything is becoming more transparent."
Investigators from the Serious Fraud Office, who have been blocked by Downing Street from investigating BAE's Swiss bank transactions linked to the Saudi royal family, have now returned to the federal prosecutor's office in Berne, sources say. This time, they want to know what happened to BAE's Tanzanian money.
Blair's role
The extent of Tony Blair's personal involvement in the Tanzania deal is charted from beyond the grave in The Point of Departure, the memoirs of former foreign secretary Robin Cook.
In December 2001 BAE, then chaired by Sir Dick Evans, lobbied Downing Street, claiming 280 jobs on the Isle of Wight might be at risk. Mr Cook, ousted from his position a few weeks earlier, recorded in his dairy: "Buttonholed by Clare Short, who is full of her latest struggle to prevent the licence."
The cabinet divided on departmental lines. The MoD pushed BAE's case. Jack Straw, the new foreign secretary, fell in with No 10. Patricia Hewitt, at the DTI, said she did not want to quarrel with Blair. Short was only backed by Gordon Brown, and eventually lost.
Blair's intervention on behalf of BAE was leaked to the Guardian. Cook saw him the next day. "He is very exercised with Clare Short briefing the Guardian ... I say 'Hats off to Clare, she reads all the telegrams and knows what is happening'. He responds 'Thanks, but I'll keep my hat on all the same'."
Cook notes: "I came to learn that the chairman of BAE appeared to have the key to the garden door to No 10. Certainly I never knew No 10 to come up with any decision that would be incommoding to BAE."
