FINANCIAL TIMES: The US issued a formal diplomatic protest to the British government over its decision to drop a fraud investigation into alleged bribery of Saudi officials by arms manufacturer BAE Systems.
The verbal protest was delivered in January by a US embassy official in London to the UK Foreign Office within days of the contentious decision being taken in December. Several governments, including the US, had raised the issue at a meeting of the anti-bribery working group of the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development.
The demarche, though discreetly delivered, was nonetheless strikingly forceful for a key military and security ally.
Diplomatic insiders told the Financial Times that Washington said the British decision put the Blair government in breach of both the spirit and the letter of the OECD anti-corruption convention that requires member states to have a “level playing field” in which to conduct commercial relations.
It is also embarrassing for BAE, whose corporate responsibility report, published this month, plays down the controversy surrounding the ditching of the investigation. US protested at axing of BAE probe (Read on) by Jimmy Burns and James Boxell
Mark Alexander
