STOCKHOLM, June 19, Reuter: Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson today called on arms maker Bofors to give the Indian government information it has demanded about a controversial arms deal which has caused a major scandal in New Delhi.
“It is quite clear that Bofors should give the Indian government the names and information it wants. We have told the Bofors board that they ought to accommodate the Indian government”, Carlsson said in a statement.
An Indian government spokesman said India wanted the names of agents alleged to have received payments of up to $40 million on a 1.3 billion dollar contract for Bofors to supply field guns to the Indian army.
The allegations by Swedish radio were seized upon by Indian Opposition parties and were a major issue in yesterday’s Haryana state elections in which Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress (1) Party was crushingly defeated. Gandhi’s government had asked Bofors not to use middlemen in an attempt to cut out corruption.
An independent Swedish Commission said Bofors paid between two to three per cent of the total contract value but it did not say to whom.
It said Bofors had released only limited information to investigate officials. ;
Carlsson said that it was a matter for Bofors rather than his government to clear up the allegations surrounding the arms deal, Sweden’s largest export order.
“Bofors has all the necessary information for the Indians. It cannot be the Swedish government’s job to reveal it”, he said.
Bofors has denied making any illegal payments and has said that any money it handed over to Indians was “severance payment” to former agents. Press spokesman Rune Borg told the TT National news agency Bofors would answer the questions raised by Indians “to the best of our ability”.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 26, 1987
