South African Press Association (SAPA)/Agence France-Presse (AFP)
September 18, 2002

A Canadian engineering firm, Acres International, has been found guilty of bribing a top official in a major water project in the African mountain kingdom of Lesotho, sources said today. The Lesotho High Court yesterday found that Acres International paid 681,316 Canadian dollars ($431,339) into Swiss bank accounts for the former head of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, Masupha Sole, between 1991 and 1998.

Chief Justice Mahapele Lehohla said the company paid the money to Sole through intermediaries to secure lucrative contracts in the construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which supplies water to neighbouring South Africa. Judge Lehohla said the court believed that one of the intermediaries, Lesotho civil engineer Zolisiwonga Bam, retained about 40% of the money he received and paid the rest to Sole to secure Acres’ interests in the project.

“Bam could hardly have squeezed so much money out of Acres without persuading Acres that it was worth its while,” Lehohla said. Sole was in June sentenced to 18 years in jail for taking bribes of more than $1 million from international consultants and contractors in the United States, Britain, Canada, France and Germany.

A German company, Lahmeyer International, is currently on trial in the Maseru High Court for bribery relating to the water project, while charges are pending against the other companies. Sentencing against Acres International is expected early next month.

Probe International, a non-governmental organisation that monitors the activities of engineering firms, has welcomed the verdict and called on the Canadian government to act against Acres. “Lesotho has shown that it takes corruption seriously by convicting its own corrupt officials as well as the corrupt briber,” Patricia Adams, a spokesperson for the organisation, said in a statement.

“If Western governments get tough with convicted bribers, multinational firms will get the message that corruption is costly, and this will spell the end of corruption on Third World development projects.”