solomon star article

Court heard Sumitomo involved in tender selection committee

http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/business/20521-court-heard-sumitomo-involved-in-tender-selection-committee

THE Solomon Islands Government tender process that awarded the now cancelled Letter of Intent for nickel prospecting in Isabel Province to the giant Japanese Mining Company, Sumitomo, in 2010 was influenced, evidences presented before the High Court revealed.

The High Court heard that the former Sumitomo Director in Solomon Islands Ichiro Abe wanted to know the identity of the members of the selection committee for international tenders in the Ministry of Mines and Energy prior to the deadline for the submission of tender bids for nickel prospecting in Isabel.

The court is now in the seventh week of its hearing into Sumitomo’s challenge to the legality of Axiom KB’s obtainment of its nickel prospecting license for Isabel Province in 2010 following the government’s cancellation of its letter of intent for nickel prospecting in Isabel.

The evidences of inducement were disclosed when the former Sumitomo Director in Solomon Islands Ichiro Abe was cross-examined over minutes of an internal Sumitomo meeting in Tokyo in 2010 at which he made a presentation about the company’s mining project in Solomon Islands.

At the meeting as revealed by the minutes, Mr Abe was asked by a Mr Hashinaka if the names of the international tender selection committee members were disclosed and he responded saying ‘yes, but they weren’t given any bribes or anything like that.’

The Minutes also reveal a Mr Koike telling Mr Abe that he should not promise to use the benefits provide by institutions like JOGMEG or JICA in seeking a successful tender.

Mr Abe declined to answer when he was questioned regarding the nature of Mr Hashinaka’s question and that if he anticipated that Mr Hashinaka might have thought that he bribed the selection committee.

The court then told Mr Abe that the point it was driving at was that his reply to Mr Hashinaka’s question was very odd, however Mr Abe disagreed.

And when Mr Abe was asked why out of all things that he might have mentioned chose to say that he had not bribed any member of the international tender selection committee, he replied saying he could not recall but then quickly elaborated, saying perhaps it was because a Mr Kimori whom he said was the president had warned against the giving of bribes and possibly he was just being conscious of that.

He rejected the court’s preposition that he wanted to know the identity of the selection committee because he wanted to bribe them.

Upon being pressed to explain why he wanted to know the names of the members of the selection committee at all, Mr Abe said “just simply wondered what sort of people were selected as screening committee members”.

When asked to tell the court about what positions he found out that the members of the selection committee held, Mr Abe said he could not recall most of them.

Again when put to Mr Abe that the only reason for him knowing the names of the selection committee was to influence them, he rejected that preposition once more, saying “I’ve never seen their faces, can’t remember their names, how can I influence those people? I am getting really upset”.

When quizzed over Mr Koike’s statement, Mr Abe said in the case when a Japanese enterprise such as Sumitomo undertook projects overseas, there were a variety of mechanisms and programmes that provided assistance to Japanese business to undertake them.

However, Mr Abe added, they were not necessarily involved in each and every project and that discussion was simply about whether or not they would be available to Sumitomo to use in its Solomon Islands project.

When it was put to Mr Abe that what he had insinuated was that he would insert into the Sumitomo tender document that various government offices would assist Solomon Islands, he replied with a yes.

Yet other documents that were in evidence in court told how Mr Abe was warned against promoting the assistance of other Japanese government agencies.

The court also heard that Sumitomo, in its tender submission for nickel prospecting in Isabel Province stated that if it was awarded the tender, there might be other financial benefits for Solomon Islands.