Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Anti-corruption chiefs 'protect UK arms fraud & corruption'

R.A.McCartney | 15.04.2008 12:08 | Anti-militarism | London | World

Transparency International officials privately accept that there has been widespread fraud on contracts to supply equipment to Britain's armed forces. They also concede this has been shielded by civil servants and government ministers from both parties. Yet the world's leading anti-corruption organisation is more concerned with maintaining its own image, and its relationship with the British government, than it is with fulfilling its mission to publicly expose this corruption.

Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of Transparency International, is involved in a scandal at its UK chapter. TI is the world's foremost anti-corruption organisation, and Cobus heads its Berlin-based International Secretariat. TI member and anti-fraud campaigner Rob McCartney is accusing the organisation of helping to cover up widespread fraud and corruption in purchasing weapons and equipment for Britain's armed forces. “This may have cost the lives of British service personnel, and is also potentially costing British taxpayers billions of pounds every year “ he says.

Britain spent around £20 billion on military equipment in 2006-2007. This was more than any other country in the world except the USA, several times the value of UK arms exports, and sixteen times as much as it spent on aid to Africa. The arms industry is currently mounting a campaign for annual spending on arms to be increased by billions of pounds (The Financial Times ran a front page story “Defence Squeezed” on 14th April 2008, and other media have also recently carried stories claiming the military equipment budget needs to be increased by several billions).

At the TI(UK) members meeting on 26th February, Cobus de Swardt emphasised the importance of accuracy in everything produced by TI. “I pointed out that the 'National Integrity Systems TI Country Study Report United Kingdom 2004' was seriously wrong on four important points” says Rob. “These false statements and omissions all distort the picture in favour of the British government, which paid for the report. For instance, the Ministry of Defence is known to have been actively involved in corruption, yet it has its own police force and controls all criminal investigations into its own activities. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has specifically quoted this as a reason why Britain is not complying with its anti-corruption convention. The report speaks about the MOD Police yet says that the Metropolitan Police is the only force directly accountable to a government department.

“I reminded Cobus that I had been complaining to the International Secretariat about the report since last April (see  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/04/369088.html and  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/380641.html), and that my complaint had not been properly addressed. In response Cobus said that if TI adopted a confrontational stance it would lose influence. This is rubbish, its already confronting the British government over its decision to block the investigation and prosecution of BAE Systems for bribing Saudi officials. At the end of the meeting I again complained that the issues I raised had not been properly dealt with. TI(UK) officers then agreed to a separate meeting with me to discuss this”.

“At the London office on 7th March:
I spent around 90 minutes explaining to TI(UK) officers the details of one type of fraud, namely changing the specification and overcharging for changes. I explained that it is an absolutely basic rule in the arms industry that changes to specifications should be kept to a minimum because they lead to vast increases in costs and huge delays. This was repeatedly hammered into me during my induction training. Yet some managers use every possible excuse to change the specification and vastly overcharged for such changes. In at least one case, they were so determined to jack up the price that they even put things into the specification which their own people said were impossible. I was told it didn't matter if the system didn't work.
I pointed out that, in 2004, the former head of Britain's largest arms company gave a interview to BBC radio. He said that the company regularly put in low bids for UK contracts, with the intention of using changes to increase prices and profits
I drew attention to the crash of an RAF Nimrod in Afghanistan which killed 14 aircrew. An old and decrepit Nimrod exploded in mid-air because a leaky fuel tank ignited. The plane should have been replaced three years before the crash by more up to date aircraft. This didn't happened because because changes to the specification had delayed the replacements for years, and doubled their cost to £4 billion.
I demonstrated how publicly available evidence proves that a Labour minister and two Tory ministers all lied to protect a company publicly accused of using this method of fraud by a member of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. I also pointed out that this example invalidates claims by the MOD that it is no longer a problem
I pointed out that another TI member, who had been done a report on fraud at the MOD for the Treasury, said that MOD civil servants had told him blatant lies to protect fraud.
I quoted an example of MOD civil servants lying in written evidence to the criminal investigation into my own allegations made in 2000. Giving misleading evidence is a crime. I also told them that the MOD Police refused to do anything about this because “we work for the MOD, we're part of the MOD” and “as long as they're happy, that's all we care about”.

TI(UK) officers accepted all this. They had no real defence for the report and agreed that withdrawing it would be an easy and powerful way of drawing attention to the subject. However, they told me that it would be damaging to admit they had put out wrong information and that the International Secretariat would oppose withdrawing the report. They did not propose any alternative action on UK arms corruption. I was not asked for, and did not give, any assurances that I would keep what was said secret from other TI members”.

Rob McCartney also says he has been prevented from distributing a leaflet to other TI members to inform them of what is going on in their own organisation. He tried hand it out at a joint TI/Royal African Society event at the House of Commons on Thursday 27th March 2008. “The only way I can contact them is by handing out leaflets at infrequent meetings arranged by TI” he said, adding “TI officials got the RAS to do their dirty work.”.

Rob McCartney has released a version of the leaflet:with an added header to explain it has been banned by TI. He plans to try and distribute it again at the next TI meeting in London Docklands on 30th April, and is appealing for others to support him. He points out that “a group of people handing out the leaflet would carry more weight than a single person”. He also hopes that people outside the UK may distribute it at meetings arranged by TI in their own countries. It is available to read or download in Open Document Text format at
 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.a.mccartney/ti/bannedbyti27march2008.odt

and in Word 97/2000/XP format at
 http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.a.mccartney/ti/bannedbyti27march2008.doc

Anyone who wants to take part in action to publicise this issue you can email Rob McCartney from his home page at  http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.a.mccartney/

R.A.McCartney
- Homepage: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/r.a.mccartney/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech