GENEVA: Just a little short of five years from the day the scandal first surfaced an official of. Nobel Industries top management has said the Bofors paid commissions to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and other top politicians in connection with the Howitzer deal in 1986. Reporting this on Monday, the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter Quoting the Noble official said the money to Gandhi went through the British company A.E Services Without them Bofors wouldn’t have had a chance for the order. The sources with which journalist Borg Anderson says he has spent twenty hours, says he decided to remain anonymous for the time being leaving open the possibility of surfacing eventually.
The Nobel boss also throws some light on the role of Arun Nehru, According to Dagens Nyheter the Nobel source among other things revealed that top Indian politician Arun Nehru played an important role in the transactions. He acted on behalf of Prime Minister Gandhi during different meetings with Martin Ardbo in 1985. Nehra made it clear that payments to Indian decision makers were necessary if Sweden wanted to take part in the final negotiations. This message from Nehru and Gandhi did not come as a surprise to Ardbo and others in the top Bofors management.” It may be recalled that evidence available, among other places with the Swedish foreign ministry has documented Arun Nehru’s role up to a stage in the negotiations. is also known that Arun Nehru was out by 1985 amidst speculation in India that he had fallen out of favor in Gandhi’s inner circles But sources in the Swedish investigative process have repeatedly said that he could be one of the persons who could point the investigations in the right direction.
The Nobel source also points at some very disturbing information about the role of the Indian intelligence in the negotiations. He told Dagens Nyheter that the decisive thing was that the Indian intelligence put Sweden in front of France. At the end of the negotiations Gandhi took advice from his intelligence people and they stressed the friendly relations with Sweden,
Indian Express enquiries in Sweden on this angle reveal that Indian intelligence may have stressed the bilateral angle and the long years of friendship between the countries as a reason for awarding the contract.
The Source also confirms what has been suspected all along that the Bofors French competitors had probably done the something, “The French had prepared the same kind of commissions to Gandhi before the final negotiations “the Nobel boss told Dagens Nyheter. And then the Nobel source makes what comes across as awkward connection between the Howitzer gun deal and the murder of Olaf Palme. Asked by the journalist why he has decided to break his silence six years after the deed was signed he says, I cannot stand the Prime Minister being murdered” and that the time linkage between the signing of the contract and Palms death has been tormenting him, The contract was signed a little over three weeks after Palme was murdered in February 1986.
The Swedish daily also confirms that here was considerable debate within Bofors about the need and correctness of making political payments to being contracts home and the role of politicians using their personal contacts to back up Swedish business interests.
Source in European contacted by the Indian Express said that before the Howitzer gun contract. Swedish companies had meager to no success in Indian markets and Bofors was supplying no more than 10 million worth of war material annually.
Just before the Howitzer contract Swedish submarine manufacture Kokum had lost the submarine deal to HDW at the very last moment. In 1982sources said the company changed tack. Over and above the traditional payoff route middlemen and military personnel the need to make political payments to win massive contracts was seen as a necessary evil. The company also decided to enroll Swedish politicians to push its case internationally. An example of this came when Swedish ship but wanted to sell submarines to Venezuela, they solicited Palmes help. Palme was then in the opposition but when the contract was concluded, sources said he understood how the international arms contracts could be fixed.
In the early eighties, the need to make political payments to bring contracts home to Sweden was regarded as a necessary evil. Dagens Nyheter Nobel boss confirms this when he says, “the Conclusion that we drew was that it was not possible to be successful without paying. Politicians money under the table.
Former Bofors official and chief negotiator for the Indian deal. Man in Ardbo has steadily maintained in his defence that for the Howitzer contract he received help from the Swedish government in ways never had before and called Palme the company’s chief salesman, Contacted on Monday by the Indian Express for comments on the new revelations. Mr Ardbo said the whole thing was “bull…”, and what came across as a challenge asked the Nobel source to come up with evidence of what he had told the paper.
Through 1986 and 1987, Bofors paid three companies bribes for the Indian contract. Svenska Incorporated, linked to former Bofors agent in India, Win Chad received 188 million and three accounts code name Lotus.
It’s important to note that this was the money that was raced but documents and payment agreements show that the kickbacks would have gone up to some 1210 14 percent of the total value of the 844 billion (1.3 billion) contract. Some Swedish investigative processors believe that these payments may have been made.
It may be recalled that documentary evidence has established that Ardbo knew he could not take the Contract home without accommodating A.E, Services and this became a continuous point between him and former Bofors executive HansEkblom who, it is well known was against political gratification.
Ardbo went ahead and paid A.E. Service without first cleaning it from Ekblom and later told the police investigators in 1987 that there would have been no contract if money had not been paid in certain manner and that he was being made the scapegoat to protect the powerful. The statement by the Nobel boss that Bofors would not have got the contract without paying A.E. Services confirms that.
AE, Services cut into the Bofors deal at the final stage of negotiations and was paid some $7 lion in Nord finanz Bank for Zurich for services nobody including the company’s director could identify. This mysterious late in the day provider of services even publicly acknowledged that the company had not worked in India prior to the contract yet was able to assure Bofors contractually that the deal would be signed before the end of March 1986, though the first reference to a contact with it in the autumn of 1985 is to be found in Martin Ardbo notes. Bvidence from Switzerland has established that A.E. Service was just a transit point. Within a week of receiving the Bofors payoff in September 1986, some 47 million from this account was transferred to another account in Geneva called Collar Investment Inc. The interesting thing about relations is that is not a crime under Swedish law which penalizes government servants and not members of a government of accepting bribes. But from the Indian standpoint things are very different. Swedish sources say if the Indian investigators manage to crack open the accounts in Geneva all the Svenska, Tulip, Lotus and Mont Blanc payments as well as the money transferred into Colbars account identifying the final recipients will not be difficult. In Sweden there is a five year time limit for the government to initiate criminal action against bribe givers and bribe takers. While bribe takers may be glad the five year time limit will run out by March 1992 (he last known date of the illegal payments), there is no guarantee that bribe givers will not start talking once the dead line takes them off the hook.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 28, 1992
