Corvette+deal+mired+in+bribery+and+corruption+allegation,+Sindy

Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, July 02, 2006 //Edition 1//
=Corvette deal mired in bribery and corruption allegation=


 * Sapa-Dpa and Jeremy Gordin**

The German Press Agency confirmed yesterday that German prosecutors are investigating possible kickbacks related to the sale of four corvettes to South Africa by the German frigate consortium - "irregularities" said to have occurred in 1999.

The agency reported that Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, will tomorrow publish a report that the equivalent of e15 million (about R135 million) may have been paid in bribes and then concealed in the shipbuilders' accounts as "expenses" and that Peter Lichtenberg, a Dusseldorf prosecutions spokesperson, had confirmed that his office was indeed investigating such a scenario.

Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems led the consortium, known as the German frigate consortium, that won the contract to build the vessels, which were designed in Hamburg, for the South Africa National Defence Force.

A senior defence force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday: "I would not know what this is all about, really. Why would it have taken six or seven years for this to have come up? I suspect that maybe someone started making enquiries recently in connection with [Jacob] Zuma's forthcoming corruption trial, and so now the German authorities are also making enquiries."

Der Spiegel will reveal that there was a co-ordinated raid on June 19 on the offices of consortium partners Blohm and Voss in Hamburg, HDW in the Baltic port of Kiel, Thyssen Rheinstahl Technik and MAN Ferrostaal in the western city of Essen.

Der Spiegel said prosecutors, police and tax officials were now studying the records seized. Thyssen Group spokesperson Klaus Pepperhoff said: "We are confident that this suspicion will not be confirmed as the inquiry proceeds."

The South African government decided in 1994 to buy new warships, but the new government was unhappy with the way in which the shortlist of suppliers had been compiled by "old guard" members of the defence force - and, following the defence review of the country's needs, a new list was drawn up, which included the German consortium.

"That was all that happened," a former defence force official said. "There was nothing mysterious. And, in terms of offsets, financing arrangements, and so on, the German consortium looked good. What is supposed to have happened in 1999, I don't know."

Der Spiegel said the Germans had "mysteriously" moved to the front in a complicated tendering procedure and an order for the four warships was signed on December 3 1999.

Two of the Meko-A-200-class vessels were built at Blohm and Voss's yard in Hamburg and two at HDW in Kiel. They are equipped with Exocet surface-to-surface missiles and with missiles to shoot down planes, according the defence-industry media.

The first was delivered in 2003. The Meko is Blohm and Voss's standard corvette and frigate series.

A corvette is suited mainly for coastal protection work.


 * From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3319795**

482 words