James Lamont in Johannesburg
Financial Times
October 29, 2002

Acres International, the Canadian engineering consulting company, was yesterday fined R22.5m ($2.23m, €2.28m, £1.43m) in the Lesotho High Court for bribery linked to a World Bank-funded southern Africa water supply contract.

The court had found Acres guilty of two counts of bribery, involving payment of C$680,000 (US$433,590, €443,690, £278,837) to secure contracts in an US$8bn (€8.2bn, £5bn) project to supply water from Lesotho to South Africa.

Acres insists it was unaware its local representative, the late Zalisiwonga Bam – who was also Canada’s honorary consul – was passing payments on to the former chief executive of the Lesotho Highlands Water Authority. The company has requested suspension of the fine pending an appeal.

A number of other European companies associated with the water project face similar charges. According to a prosecuting advocate, Spie Batignolles, the French construction company, is the next company to undergo legal process in the Lesotho court. Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners of the UK, ABB, the Swiss-Swedish group, and Sogreah, Dumez and Cegelec of France also await trial.

The companies have denied the charges.

An Ontario-based spokesman for Acres said it had “naively” stepped forward for trial, believing it could easily exonerate itself. “Corruption in donor-sponsored projects is likely to stimulate donor fatigue. It may discourage aid for Lesotho in other areas of infrastructural development, not only the Lesotho Highlands Water Project,” said Lala Camerer, a policy researcher who gave expert testimony in the case.