Mabey & Johnson was the contractor for the Berbice River floating bridge. The SFO’s response came in reply to an official request from Stabroek News for information under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act.
Earlier this year, the bridge-building firm became the first major British company to be convicted of foreign bribery. Many of its contracts were financially supported by the British taxpayer.
The UK Telegraph on September 29, 2009 reported that the company was convicted of bribing 12 officials in six countries: Ghana Angola, Madagascar, Mozambique, Bangladesh and Jamaica.
In the Southwark crown court, London, John Hardy QC for the SFO, revealed the names of 12 individuals in six countries alleged to have received bribes from the Reading-based Mabey and Johnson.
He said the company paid “a wide-ranging series of bribes” totalling £470,000 to politicians and officials in Ghana.
He identified five persons who travelled to Britain to collect sums of money from bank accounts in London and Watford.
The Telegraph reported Hardy as saying that over eight years, the firm gave £100,000 “to buy the favours” of a key Jamaican official in awarding contracts, one of them worth £14 million.
The UK court was told how the firm paid bribes totalling £1 million to foreign politicians and officials to get export orders valued at £60 million to £70 million through covert middlemen.
The Mabey family built up a fortune of more than £200 million by selling steel bridges internationally.
The company also broke UN sanctions by illegally paying £363,000 to Saddam Hussein’s government from 2001 – 2002.
The Telegraph pointed out that the first conviction was hailed as a landmark by the British government, which had been heavily criticised for failing to prosecute any UK firm for foreign bribery. The firm is to pay out more than £6.5 million, including fines and reparations to foreign governments.
The UK newspaper reported that Mabey &Johnson pleaded guilty to corruption in a pioneering deal with the SFO. It was the first time the agency has concluded a US-style plea bargain with a firm accused of corruption overseas.
The company said it had reformed itself, stopped making corrupt payments, and got rid of five executives. Timothy Langdale, the firm’s QC, said: “This is a new company. It is not the one which made these payments,” The Telegraph reported.
Stabroek News had written to the SFO office on October 6, 2009 enquiring as to whether there was any investigation of the contract award in Guyana.
The SFO replied on October 30, 2009 saying that “We can neither confirm nor deny, under s31 (1) (a) of the FOIA, that information is held in relation to the activities of Mabey & Johnson in Guyana. Confirmation that information is or is not held could prejudice the prevention and detection of crime. Confirming incidence of an investigation increases the possibility for suspected criminals to identify whether their actions are under investigation or not. If an individual could ascertain whether they were under investigation, it could render the public authority’s investigation process ineffective as the disclosure as to whether such information was held could result in an individual modifying his/her behaviour in ways that might frustrate any such investigation.”
The reply was provided by Tracy Gildersleeves Freedom of Information Officer along with a copy of Section 31 of the Act.
