STOCKHOLM, June 4, Reuter: Sweden today released details of an independent inquiry into allegations that its biggest arms firm Bofors bribed Senior Indian officials to secure a major weapons contract with the Indian army.
The Foreign Trade Ministry, responsible for arms exports, issued a report which revealed how Bofors made cash payments to its Indian agent after the 1.3 billion contract for field guns was signed last year.
The report, submitted to the government on Tuesday, said between two and three per cent of the contract value upto 40 million dollars was paid to Indian contacts.
But the company today denied these payments contradicted the assurance it earlier gave to the Indian and Swedish governments not to use middlemen or agents in securing the deal.
According to today’s report, the company described the payments as fees for agents no longer permitted to help in negotiating the contract.
The use of middlemen is central to the controversy which has raged since Swedish radio in April accused Bofors of paying five million dollars in bribes and 40 million dollars in unauthorized transactions while negotiating the deal.
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi insisted on the no middlemen clause to reduce risk of corruption.
“Bofors says it started to scale down its contacts after the Indian government demanded the deals, should be discussed directly, without middlemen”, the report said.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 12, 1987
