STOCKHOLM, Sweden, May 26 (UPI) -- Swedish defense group Saab said it has launched an internal investigation amid allegations of bribery linked to the company's sale of 26 fighter jets to South Africa.
Saab didn't know about a contract signed in 2003 by the company's South African subsidiary Sanip with local consultant Hlongwane Ltd. to lobby in favor of Saab in a $3 billion fighter jet sale to the South African government, Saab Chief Executive Officer Hakan Buskhe said in a news conference.
The agreement between Sanip and Hlongwane, Buskhe said, was "completely new to us," when he learned about it last week. Buskhe then immediately launched an internal investigation, he said.
So far, the audit hadn't brought up any wrongdoing, he said.
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"Nothing supports that Saab has paid out any money based on the contract," between Sanip and Hlongwane. "We have zero tolerance regarding bribes, corruption and unethical conduct when it comes to doing business. … We have no desire to cover up anything."
The allegations of corruption surfaced in a May 17 report aired by the Swedish TV4 channel. Relying on bank statements, TV4 said Sanip paid Hlongwane nearly $8 million in several installments from 2003-05 to make sure that South Africa would go through with an order of 26 Gripen fighter jets, a deal signed in 1999.
The dealings of Sanip are a bit obscure. The company was founded to promote business activities in South Africa. Saab says it was operated by BAE Systems but owned by Saab until 2004.
That was "not too clever," Buskhe said, adding that Sanip was now dormant.
The allegations came as Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was in Brazil lobbying for the sale of a next-generation Gripen, a lightweight single engine multi-role fighter jet, to the Brazilian air force. Saab is in the race to outfit the Brazilian armed forces with 36 new fighter jets. Other contenders include France's Dassault and its Rafale as well as Boeing and its F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Saab has tried to sweeten its offer by promising that 40 percent of the ordered jets would be built in Brazil and that the Brazilian air force would get full access to the technology used in the Gripen NG.
Alongside other European and U.S. arms firms, Saab is also competing for an Indian order for 126 fighter plans, a contract estimated to be worth more than $10 billion.
Planes in the running are the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, the Dassault Rafale, the Eurofighter Typhoon from Europe's EADS, Lockheed Martin's F-16, the Russian-made MiG-35 and Saab's Gripen.
