Acres International Press Release (Canada NewsWire)
October 28, 2002

(Note: The following is Acres International’s reaction to its sentencing by a Lesotho court in regards to its contracts on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.)

TORONTO- Acres International said today that it was equally disturbed and dismayed by the Lesotho trial judge’s sentence as it was by his earlier unjustified decision. Acres said it would continue its preparation to appeal the decision and the sentence.

Acres vociferously protests its innocence and is committed to strongly defending its good reputation. Acres is proud of its 78 year unblemished record of ethical business practice, and for the high reputation it has earned in assisting developing countries. The same charges were dismissed by the World Bank after a comprehensive, multi-year investigation with access to all of the evidence available to the Lesotho prosecution, including all bank records.

Acres engaged a highly regarded Lesotho engineer as its independent representative in Lesotho, in accordance with World Bank, other development banks, Canadian government, and international industry guidelines. The local representative, who was also the Honourary Canadian Consul, was compensated at the lower end of industry and government guidelines for international projects of similar complexity.

Acres was completely unaware that the representative was secretly paying some of his fee to the director of the water project. The payments were entirely between the representative, who is now deceased, and the director of the water project. Acres had no knowledge of any payments, had no motive for them and received no benefit.

An international competitive bidding process, supervised by the governments of Lesotho and South Africa, approval by the World Bank, and overall review by an independent international engineering firm, resulted in Acres being awarded its first contract in 1985 on the Lesotho Water Highlands Project. The second, direct follow-on contract was subject to a similar multi-level approval. Neither approval process was controlled by the project director.

Acres was praised for its work and completed its contracts on time and under budget, during a volatile and politically unstable period when Lesotho endured several government coups, violent riots and occupation by the government of South Africa.

For further information: George Soteroff, (416) 598-0055 ext. 226, George.Soteroff@gpcinternational.com