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 Lesotho to pursue bribery cases despite lack of support
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Lesotho to pursue bribery cases despite lack of support
July 21, 2004Johannesburg - Lesotho would pursue bribery cases against multinationals on one of the world's biggest dam projects despite the lack of foreign support, attorney-general Lebohang Fine Maema said on Monday.Maema said the tiny kingdom - hailed for its battle against corporate graft - had been largely fighting alone, despite pledges of financial support from developed countries."Various offers of financial assistance have over the years been made to Lesotho. To date, none has been forthcoming," he said.The $8 billion (R46.8 billion) Lesotho Highlands Water Project, resulting from an agreement signed in 1986 with South Africa, aims to redirect Lesotho's abundant water resources to South Africa's industrial heartland through one of the world's largest networks of dams "Western contractors often grease the wheels of corruption in Africa"
.The project has been bedevilled by allegations of graft. Prosecutors have so far secured guilty pleas and convictions against the project's head as well as two international firms.Maema said Lesotho had asked donor countries and the World Bank for help in funding investigations, saying the lawsuits were a huge financial drain on an impoverished kingdom of only 2 million people.
Maema said further discussions had been held with South Africa on the issue of financial aid. "Hopefully something will come of it," he said.
Maema said prosecutors would continue working on the case, which has already seen charges lodged against a dozen local and foreign firms, including from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Panama and Sweden.
"Five years ago any mention of prosecution of multinational corporations ... especially in the so-called Third World, was a pipe dream," Maema said, describing the cases as a "David and Goliath" battle.
He said the perception that graft was solely an African problem was not true, noting that western contractors often greased the wheels of corruption in Africa.
"It will become clear to those proposing to do business in the country that there is a good chance that corrupt conduct will be detected."
Maema said Lesotho was awaiting the results of a World Bank corruption inquiry launched last month into Canadian company Acres International, to see if it would be blacklisted by the international agency.
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