Lesotho Judge Convicts German Engineering Firm of Bribery Charges

Acres International lost its appeal of its Lesotho bribery conviction on Friday. The Lesotho High Court had earlier found the Canadian engineering firm guilty of paying bribes to the former Chief Executive of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in exchange for favorable contract decisions.

Judge Jan Steyn remarked in his decision that Acres "was motivated by greed."

The Court upheld Acres’ appeal against a second charge and consequently reduced their sentence to a fine equivalent to US$1.9 million dollars.

The company now faces what could prove to be an even more severe penalty. The World Bank, one of Acres’ primary clients, has said it will review evidence submitted during the trial and revisit its earlier conclusion that insufficient evidence existed to bar Acres from receiving future World Bank–funded contracts.*

"There is no excuse for further delay. It is time for the World Bank to stop doing business with corrupt companies like Acres," said Ryan Hoover of International Rivers. "If they don't, they must be seen as complicit in that corruption."

Acres has worked on several controversial World Bank–funded dams, among them the proposed Bujagali Dam in Uganda (the project was halted by corruption last year) and Nam Theun 2 Dam in Laos. They also participated in the massive Three Gorges Dam Project in China.

* In 2001, the World Bank’s Anti–Fraud Unit and an independent law firm concluded that there was "reasonably sufficient" evidence to suggest that Acres bribed the Lesotho official. However, after an internal review, the Bank’s Sanctions Committee overruled this finding.