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’