Namibia graft body wants to interview son of Hu

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – Namibia’s Anti-Corruption  Commission has requested an interview with the son of Chinese  leader Hu Jintao to glean information about a deal involving a  Chinese scanner company, the head of the anti-graft body said yesterday.

Until last year Hu Haifeng, the only son of the Chinese  president, was chief executive of scanner manufacturing company  Nuctech which secured a $55.3 million contract to deliver x-ray  scanning equipment to Namibia.

The commission said three people, two Namibians and a  Chinese national, were arrested earlier this month on fraud,  bribery and corruption charges in connection with the scanner  deal.

Paulus Noa, director of the commission, said it had  requested an interview with Hu and senior Nuctech management  through the company’s Namibian lawyer.

“We would like an interview with him to establish some  information from him as the (former) head of the company. If he  is not available, senior managers of the company should avail  themselves so that we could have discussions with them,” Noa  said in a telephone interview from Windhoek.

Noa said Hu was not a suspect but would be able to give  evidence. Nuctech and Namibia’s finance ministry signed an agreement  for the supply of scanning equipment in May last year, The  Namibian newspaper reported on its website.    Nuctech in Beijing was not immediately available for  comment.

Under the agreement, the ministry had to pay $12.8 million  while the remainder of the cost of the scanning equipment was to  be financed through a Chinese government loan.

In March this year, Namibian company Teko Trading invoiced  Nuctech for consulting services in connection with the  transaction and the following month Nuctech paid the firm around  $4.2 million, The Namibian said.

Namibia’s High Court has ordered the assets of the three  arrested people to be frozen. They were named as Teko directors  Teckla Lameck, who is Namibia’s Public Service Commissioner, her  business partner Kongo Mokaxwa and Chinese citizen Yang Fan —  Nuctech’s Africa representative.