Balfour Beatty came out fighting last month following reports in the British press that it may be blacklisted by the World Bank, for its alleged involvement in the Lesotho bribery scandal.

In a 200 page document, published last month, Judge Brendon Cullinan referred to the UK construction firm only once in his inquiry into allegations of corruption surrounding the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

However, the UK’s Guardian newspaper said that Balfour Beatty could be blacklisted by the World Bank as a result of the judge’s findings.

‘Balfour Beatty has not been implicated in any way by the report,’ Balfour Beatty’s director of communications, Tim Sharp told T&TI. ‘The Guardian was either incorrect or made inaccurate deductions; it was wrong in several respects.’

Balfour Beatty belongs to the Lesotho Highlands Project Contractors consortium, which includes Spie Batignolles and Ed Züblin as members. Bribery charges levelled at it were withdrawn in December 2001.

The allegations centred on a payment of US$192,808 to a Swiss bank account controlled by French agent Max Cohen, who has since been found to be a channel for bribes to the project’s chief executive at the time, Mustapha Sole. Sole has been charged and jailed for accepting up to US$4.7M in bribes.

Responding to the report, the Guardian said that the World Bank ‘will be forced to look at the issue again’. The article went on to say: ‘In finding that Balfour Beatty and other companies had deliberately entered into a corrupt agreement, the judge stressed that they must have known the payments to Swiss banks involved bribery.’

Angered by the article, Sharp said ‘the World Bank has said that we are not accused of any wrong doing – one would anticipate there would be serious consequences if we were… Sole received money from an agent who represented contractors on the Lesotho project, but not Balfour Beatty.’

Some companies are currently being prosecuted for their involvement in the scandal, including Canadian engineering firm Acres International Corp, charged with paying Sole bribes of about US$1.1M in several installments. Judgment is scheduled for 5 August 2002.

Other companies charged and awaiting trial are Lahmeyer International GmbH (German) and Balfour Beatty’s consortium partner Spie Batignolles (French).

Other major contractors on the project may also be prosecuted.