FORMER KUWAITI OFFICIALS ACCUSED OF SQUANDERING MONEY IN HELICOPTER DEAL
▶ Inquiry says it found evidence of a cover-up in favour of Airbus subsidiary
A Kuwaiti investigation has accused former officials and senior army officers of mismanaging $382 million in an Airbus Helicopters deal marred by corruption allegations.
Decisions made by ministers, deputy ministers and army leaders were blighted by “negligence and weakness in following up employees’ negligence in their work, which resulted in many damages to the ministry and public funds”, said Kuwaiti MP Adel Al Damkhi, who led the parliamentary committee investigation.
The committee was formed more than a year ago to investigate an $8.7 billion Defence Ministry deal to buy Eurofighter warplanes and a $1 billion deal to buy 30 Caracal military helicopters from Airbus.
Panel members met senior military officials last year after accusations were raised about the inflated price of the Eurofighter jets, as well as concerns about technical problems with the Caracals and bribery allegations involving a middleman.
Kuwait signed a contract to buy 30 Caracals in August 2016, a year after confirming its interest during a visit to Paris by Sheikh Jaber Al Mubarak Al Sabah, prime minister at the time.
In December 2017, Kuwaiti authorities opened an investigation to verify the conditions under which the contract was negotiated with Airbus Helicopters. A report had alleged that a Lebanese middleman demanded a commission of $71 million from Airbus in connection with the deal.
Subsequently, Kuwait’s Defence Ministry suspended further deliveries of the Caracals, as the first two to be handed over had engine problems.
Eventually, 26 of the 30 Caracal helicopters were delivered by the end of last year.
The committee said it found evidence that some Kuwaiti Defence Ministry officials had covered up for the European company and accused several officials who they suspected of concealing a crime regarding the disclosure of commissions.
Mr Al Damkhi did not specify which former officials were accused of mismanagement. Airbus Helicopters told The
National it had “no comment” to make on the conclusions of the Kuwaiti investigation.
Mr Al Damkhi alleged that last October that “some gangs” attempted to interfere in the committee’s investigation and alter its findings.
The main aim of the inquiry was to reach conclusions that would help to stop the squandering of public funds, he said.
Airbus Helicopters is a subsidiary of parent company Airbus, which has been embroiled in a number of previous corruption allegations. Airbus was investigated by British, French and US prosecutors between 2016 and last year over allegations of bribing public officials and hiding payments.
French prosecutors said at the time that their investigation involved transactions conducted in several countries – including Kuwait.
In a separate case involving Kuwaiti aircraft purchases, last January, the government referred two senior military officers for prosecution in case related to the country’s purchase of Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, after an investigation into the inflated price paid.
In 2016, the Gulf country ordered 28 Typhoons from its consortium of European manufacturers in a deal valued at about $8.7 billion.
Investigations revealed that the officers “caused grave damage to public money by issuing inflated bills to the manufacturer that exceeded the total value agreed upon in the main contract”, the official Kuwait News Agency reported at the time.