Is Your Handline
Phone a Siemens?
by
Bala
Muhammad
balamuhammad@hotmail.com
For those who
may not know, Munich is to Berlin in Germany what Lagos is to Abuja in
Nigeria: the first is the economic capital, the second the political. The
economic capital (Munich, Lagos) is in the south of the country; the
political capital (Berlin, Abuja) in the north. The similarities continue
in that both Berlin and Abuja are ‘new’ capitals; as Berlin retook her
position of the seat of government from Bonn not too long ago.
Transparency
International, TI, the global anti-corruption watchdog, is based in
Berlin. Siemens AG, the giant German conglomerate Nigerians know better in
telecommunications (and most recently as the latest benefactor of our
corrupt leaders) is based in Munich, which another headquarters in Berlin.
To wit,
www.wikipedia.org says “Siemens
AG is Europe's largest
engineering
conglomerate. Siemens'
international headquarters are located in
Berlin and
Munich,
Germany. The company is a
conglomerate of six major
business divisions:
Automation & Control,
Power,
Transportation,
Medical, Information &
Communication, and
Lighting. Worldwide, Siemens
and its subsidiaries employ approximately 480,000 people in 190 countries
and reported global sales of €87.325 billion in fiscal year 2006” (and, it
should be added, netted a liability of €10 million paid as bribe to top
Nigerian political leaders.)
It is quite
apparent that Transparency International spoke too soon in its latest
Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the league table of ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’
countries in the grievous matter of corruption it released end of
September. Spoke too soon, that is, in classifying Nigeria as having
significantly improved in its ratings. (Of course, the apologists may soon
come out with the theory that the Siemens scandal took place many years
ago, and therefore Nigeria’s current rating is justified). It is not.
Transparency
International (www.transparency.org)
says the organisation “is committed to raising public awareness of the
daily and long-term impact of corruption. Transparency’s clarion call, its
slogan, is ‘Corruption Ruins Lives. Take Action.’
In Transparency’s
CPI 2007 as usual, the rich countries of Denmark, Finland and New Zealand
tied at the first position, that is, they are the cleanest countries as
far as corruption is concerned. Singapore followed close by, followed by
Sweden. These five have been adjudged the most corruption-immune countries
out of a total of 179 countries surveyed.
Somalia, that
perpetually-in-crisis wannabe-nation, brought up the rear as the last, or
most corrupt, nation at 179, perhaps understandably. The northeast African
nation tied at this 179th position with Myanmar (formerly
Burma); she of the protesting monks and Aung San Suu Kyi. Just one notch
‘cleaner’ is Iraq at 178. Oil for Food. Blackwater. All three rear comers
are nations in crises.
And may the Lord
have mercy on Belarus! She placed 150th, three rungs below Our
Own Dear Native Land. Nigeria placed 147th, tying with Angola
and Guinea Bissau. A welcome ranking for this country considering that for
several years Nigeria was almost indisputably the occupant of the
positions now occupied by Somalia, Mynmar and Iraq.
Siemens has a
presence in Nigeria, as we have so painfully been reminded. In fact, they
have a dedicated Nigerian website:
www.siemens.com.ng. They have a
brilliantly catchy catchphrase: ‘In Nigeria. For Nigeria’. (And for
several other things beside). Siemens continues this legend on its
website: “[it] improves the lives of Nigerians by supplying innovative
solutions in the field of power generation, power transmission and
distribution and automation technology. The company serves Nigeria's first
and second national carriers as well as several other customers with a
portfolio that includes…” All legend. All theory.
The Nigerian
media are awash with stories on the Siemens bribery scandal. So, to be
fair to Siemens, this writer ‘sought the opinion’ of Siemens by trying to
find out how they themselves covered the corruption scandal. Benefit of
the doubt. So off to their global website we go: w1.siemens.com/entry/en.
As expected, the scandal is not on their front page. So a search is
initiated with ‘Nigeria’ as search term. 624 Results came up. The first
result was, you guessed, NOT on the scandal. Neither was the second. And
nor was any of the first ten. Result One says: “Siemens
AG to supply compressor trains for the Oil and Gas industry in Qatar and
Nigeria…”
Not one to give up, off we
go again to the Siemens website Press Centre at
w1.siemens.com/press/en.
This time, the search terms are a little bolder: ‘Nigeria’ and
‘Bribe’. This came back: “You
searched for: ‘nigeria’
and ‘bribe’.
You have 0 results. Our recommendations for your search query: Siemens in
Nigeria
is active in the following business areas…” Zero results they say. But how
many zeros could one get in ten million Euros? Seven! Hand them zeros over
to Soludo to perish them!
Then
second time lucky: a further search on ‘telecommunications’ and ‘bribe’ on
the lexisnexis search engine came up with: ‘Ericsson
Paid $1.9M Bribe to Oman’. It was dated November 21, 2007. May the Lord
have mercy. Nigeria is not alone, and neither is Siemens.
The Omani story goes: “Ericsson
AB paid $1.9 million to a Swiss bank account tied to Oman while winning a
large Oman telecom authority sale, a Radio Sweden broadcast report said
Wednesday. The money…went into an account officially belonging to a
business agent but was actually used by Oman's postal and
telecommunications minister. ‘A company paying a minister via an agent?
That…is likely to be a bribe,’ Transparency International said. An
Ericsson representative said the Stockholm company wouldn't answer
questions about business agents or alleged bribes and referred journalists
to the company's ethical code…” They have one!
To coincide with
the release of Transparency International’s CPI 2007, Times Online (www.business.timesonline.co.uk)
ran a story on September 26, 2007, tilted “Multinationals Fuel Corruption
in Poor States”:
“Multinational companies are fuelling corruption in the world’s poorest
countries by routinely issuing bribes and accepting illicitly-gained cash
as payment, Transparency International has claimed. ‘Bribe money often
stems from multinationals based in the world’s richest countries. It can
no longer be acceptable for these companies to regard bribery in export
markets as a legitimate business strategy’, the organisation stated.
“Akere
Muna, vice chair of the Berlin-based group, said: ‘Criticism by rich
countries of corruption in poor ones has little credibility while their
financial institutions sit on wealth stolen from the world’s poorest
people.’
“Haguette Labelle, Transparency’s chairman, said: ‘This is a very ripe
area for corruption as everybody tries to get these lucrative contracts
and are more inclined to try to put money under the table. Corruption
manufactures poverty, it seeds violence and it destabilisies countries
dramatically.’ The World Bank says that corruption is among the greatest
obstacles to economic growth in poor countries.”
Echoing this
story same day, Financial Times (www.ft.com) came up with: “West Complicit
in Third World Corruption:
“
Western multinationals and financial centres are often ‘complicit in
driving corruption in poor nations’, Transparency International charged on
Wednesday as it published its annual ranking of how corrupt different
countries are perceived to be. Huguette Labelle, TI chairwoman, criticised
multinationals for double-standards, paying bribes in poor countries while
behaving better at home.
“’The bribe
money that buys a champagne lifestyle for corrupt officials in the poorest
countries often originates in multinational companies based in the world’s
richest countries – the CPI’s top scorers’, she said. Citing examples of
difficulties in recovering ‘stolen wealth’ from the Philippines and
Nigeria, TI calls for tougher rules. ‘Leading banking centres should
explore the development of uniform expedited procedures for the
identification, freezing and repatriation of proceeds of corruption’.
“Ms Labelle
said that corruption is a blight on development efforts, especially in the
poorest countries. “Despite some gains, corruption remains an enormous
drain on resources sorely needed for education, health and
infrastructure”.
On Sub-Saharan Africa,
TI continues to say: “The combination of abundant natural resources, a
history of autocratic and unaccountable government, as well as conflict
and crisis throughout the continent have posed particular challenges to
governance and the fight against corruption in Africa to the point that
several countries have become virtually synonymous with graft.
Despite recent progress
in democracy and human rights in a number of African countries, corruption
remains one of the biggest challenges throughout the continent. Enormous
natural resources in a number of countries have proven too tempting to
some elites and international business concerns.”
True. But it really
seems Transparency overestimated (or is it underestimated) us, and spoke
too soon. We await CPI 2008. Afterall, Siemens is ‘In Nigeria. For
Nigeria’
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