Arms deals and corruption
This article is a vivid reminder of why corruption is so difficult to stop, as well as highlighting why whistleblowers are also unsung heroes. In this case The Guardian describes a scheme, that was brought to light in 2010, which took 14 years to bring to trial, and was a kickback scheme from the start, with the UK Ministry of Defense providing cover for its contractor. In this case the contractor, GPT Special Project Management, which was the implementer of the program, Sangcom between Britain and Saudi Arabia, the mechanism to pay bribes was described as “bought in services”. The contractor added a 16% “bought in services” fee to all of its invoices, then paid those proceeds to a company in the Cayman Islands called Simec. GPT claimed to receive “bought in services” in exchange. In reality, Simec provided no services and simply acted as a middleman, passing the bribes on to their true recipients.” And this had been approved by the Ministry of Defense, in writing. This continued for many years, being noticed from 2003 by one of the financial managers. It was Ian Foxley, who joined the company in 2010, who had brought it to the attention of the Serious Fraud Office in 2012. In 2014 arrests were made but it took until 2020 to bring the cases to trial and ultimately in 2021, the contractor pled guilty to corruption. Unfortunately, the reaction was very muted, Parliament’s defense committee has exhibited zero interest in the case as well as no accountability from the MoD and they said nothing about historic government complicity in the Sangcom bribes.
Why is this important? It is important to remind all of us that governments need to be held accountable and that whistleblowing must be encouraged and supported. It also is a reminder that when we point fingers at other countries, which are less developed, we need to remember that we too must be held to account. In this case it was only the revelations of one person who brought this very large ongoing case to light, supporting the Senior Fraud Office. Thankfully, even though the government didn’t want it brought to light, it was, and we should all be glad that this has been publicized.
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