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Tag: Serious Fraud Office

  • Call to bar G4S and Serco public sector contracts

    Call to bar G4S and Serco public sector contracts

    Serco and G4S were stripped of responsibility for tagging offenders last year
    Serco and G4S were stripped of responsibility for tagging offenders last year

    G4S and Serco should be barred from bidding for public sector contracts while they are investigated for fraud, campaigners have said.

    According to BBC prison charity the Howard League for Penal Reform said it had taken a dossier of accusations against the two outsourcing companies to police.

    The firms are subject to a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) probe into contracts for electronically tagging offenders.

    A suspension preventing them bidding for work was lifted earlier this year.

    They were barred last year after an audit found they had charged taxpayers for tagging criminals who were in jail or did not exist.

    Serco won a new government contract after the Cabinet Office ended its ban in February, while G4S has been allowed to bid again since April.

    But the Howard League criticised ministers for considering giving the multinationals new contracts.

    Chief executive Frances Crook said: “The delivery of justice is one of the most precious public services and we must, as a nation, adhere to the highest standards of probity.”

     

    Further allegations

    G4S has agreed to repay £109m to the public purse after an audit found it overcharged for providing electronic prisoner tags.

    Serco said it would pay back almost £70m.

    The SFO is examining allegations that the companies charged for tagging criminals who were dead, offenders who had gone back to jail and others who had fled the UK.

    “The dossier compiled by the Howard League is a litany of failure by private companies,” Ms Crook added.

    The allegations will be sent to the Public Accounts Committee which investigated government outsourcing earlier this year.

     

    “The dossier compiled by the Howard League is a litany of failure by private companies”–Frances CookHoward League

  • Fresh UK-Saudi Bribery Scandal

    Fresh UK-Saudi Bribery Scandal

    Cameron and SaudiThe British government is reluctant to launch an investigation into a multi-million pounds bribery scandal involving a British defence firm and the Saudi royal family.

    Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has revealed that a British defence firm deposited millions of pounds into a bank account in Switzerland belonging to one of the members of the Saudi royal family. 

    The deposit was made to ensure that British Ministry of Defence would grant a two-billion pounds contract to GPT, a British wing of EADS, the biggest aerospace defence company in Europe. 

    Under the contract, GPT was responsible for modernizing communications and cyberwarfare equipment of the Saudi royal palaces and National Guard, which helped the Bahraini regime to suppress the protesters in May.

    In 2008, a whistleblower told senior staff at EADS about the bribery scandal saying the deposits “may be illegal… I am flagging up to you a possible illegal transaction and seeking your guidance.” 

    Furthermore, another whistleblower briefed SFO on the scandal telling them that 11.5 million pounds have been deposited into a Swiss bank account.

    The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who was informed about the scandal by SFO, is to decide whether to open an investigation into the alleged bribes made by GPT.

    Nevertheless, he may decide to refrain from launching an inquiry for the sake of the British firm’s interests.

    In a similar case in 2007, the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, decided to drop corruption charges against the arms company BAE after then-Prime Minister Tony Blair exerted pressure on him.

    BAE had also bribed the then head of Saudi air force, Prince Turki-bin-Nasser, in order to secure a 40 billion pounds contract to sell jets to the Saudis.

    www.presstv.ir, OCTOBER 10 2011