The Prime Minister says he is fighting corruption, but he is merely keeping the lid on scandals. The Acres bribery case is one that could blow up.
[. . . . ] The Liberal government's underlying tolerance of sleaze shows in the ongoing case of Acres International, a Canadian engineering multinational whose bribery conviction in a $12-billion water megaproject in the African country of Lesotho was recently upheld on appeal. The federal government neither deplored Acres' behaviour nor cut it off from the public trough. Instead, it rallied to Acres' defence. Federal officials denigrated the Lesotho court decision that castigated Acres' "premeditated and carefully planned criminal act," and our federal government's man at the World Bank in Washington argued against debarring Acres, despite the bank's policy of debarring companies that engage "in corrupt or fraudulent practices." Debarring would disqualify Acres from participating in World Bank contracts.
As far as the federal government is concerned, Acres is a company in good standing. Export Development Canada, a federal Crown corporation that subsidizes exports, refuses to debar Acres, and the Canadian International Development Agency, a federal aid agency that on its own has provided Acres and its affiliates with more than $100-million over the years, only last month affirmed that no penalties were called for: "We will continue to fulfil existing contractual agreements with Acres and will consider new proposals when submitted."
The federal government's refusal to treat corruption, wherever it may find it, as a serious offence betrays a culture of corruption. In the Acres case, the very person who deposited Acres' bribes into the Swiss bank account of a corrupt foreign official, and who enriched himself in the process, was himself a Canadian federal official, appointed by the federal Cabinet and abusing his official capacity as Canada's honorary consul to Lesotho. The government's evident reaction: "So what?"
[. . . . ] A World Bank decision to debar Acres could come down during the coming federal election campaign.
