Sudatel paid millions of dollars in bribes to win cell phone license in Senegal: report

May 2, 2010 (WASHINGTON) — Sudan’s telecom company, Sudatel, paid some $40 million to bribe Senegalese and foreign lobbyists in 2007 in order to get a cell phone license in the western Africa country of Senegal, a local press disclosed this week.

In 2007, Senegal had decided to issue a license to the country’s third mobile network operator and called on international firms to come forward with offers detailing the technical and financial aspects of the proposal.

Sudatel, which is 26-percent state-owned, at the time hired Arab and unidentified U.S. lobbyists to help win the contract. The operation had been managed by three individuals: Hussein Abu-Basseet, Hamza Al-Hassan and Abdel- Aziz Osman, according to the weekly Senegalese magazine La Gazette, in its edition of this week

These three people have managed on behalf of Sudatel to convince the authorities to award them Senegal’s third mobile license .

Sudatel won the reportedly $200 million license from 11 other competitors, including the Kuwaiti-owned Zain and Bintel of Saudi Arabia.

The agreement between Sudatel and its lobbyists provided for payment of a commission of $10 million for American and Arab “experts” who conducted the transactions, while the Senegalese partners received $30 million.

A Senegalese company, The Red Sea, an offshore company whose headquarters is based in Dubai was the main beneficiary of the commissions paid. Informed sources said the firm is headed by a son of the President Abdoulaye Wade.

The magazine said that around $100 million of the contract was transferred by Sudatel to the United Arab bank based in Abu Dhabi with Red Sea firm as the beneficiary while another $100 million was sent to Central Bank of West African States – BCEAO.

La Gazette alleged that the U.S. consultants had been paid while the Arab partners who did not receive their commission, lodged a complaint in 2008 before a court in Dubai against this Senegalese holding firm asking for disbursement of $10 million or its equivalent in UAE Dirhams.

(ST)