News / National
EU bribes minister with 3 600 euro over Chiadzwa diamonds
09 Apr 2012 at 05:00hrs | Views
State media on Sunday reported that the European Union (EU) corruptly paid a Liberian deputy minister to induce him to compile a false and hostile report on Zimbabwe's diamond mining sector.
Investigations by this The Sunday Mail have unearthed a sordid paper trail pointing to a scandal that could rock the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP) to the core and drive a wedge between Western and African members of the grouping.
The Liberian Deputy Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy, Mr Kpandel Fayia, visited Zimbabwe from June 30 to July 4 2009, chairing a KP review mission whose mandate was to assess the country's compliance with KP minimum requirements in the Chiadzwa diamond fields before mineral exports could be authorised. Apart from assessing overall compliance, the review mission, headed by Mr Fayia, was tasked with assessing the situation in and around the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
But the EU, in a bid to block Zimbabwe's diamond exports by corruptly influencing the outcome of the review mission's report, secretly paid Mr Fayia 3 600 euro, with a promise to pay a further 2 400 euro on condition that the Liberian official would meet his end of the bargain by compiling a hostile report which the bloc and its Western partners in the KP would use to bar Zimbabwe's exports.
A diamond industry analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 6 000 euro (about US$7 800) can be viewed as a modest amount in rich countries but is a fortune in Liberia, where the monthly salaries of civil servants were recently increased to a paltry US$100.
Mr Fayia will be remembered for crying dramatically during his tour when political activists and officials from anti-Zimbabwe non-governmental organisations narrated to him what they alleged were heart-rending human rights violations by the army and police in Chiadzwa.
The Government said the allegations were concocted in a sinister bid to block Zimbabwe's exports.
After the tour, Mr Fayia and his team wrote a report claiming Zimbabwe was not KP compliant. The report frustrated the Southern African state's hopes of selling diamonds on the international market.
Mr Fayia's report, which disappointed Zimbabweans who were looking forward to the authorisation of exports, recommended the "suspension of Zimbabwe from importing or exporting rough diamonds within the KPCS for a period of at least six months but until such time as a KP team determines that minimum standards have been met".
The cat was let out of the bag after EU officials refused to pay Mr Fayia the outstanding 2 400 euro.
Instead, they have offered to pay him 61 euro, the amount he spent in mailing documents to EU headquarters in Brussels through DHL. Mr Fayia has responded angrily, demanding the promised money and accusing the EU of racism.
The Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Dr Obert Mpofu told the state control media house that the matter has exposed the "duplicity and hypocrisy of some KPCS members".
"These are the obstacles that Zimbabwe has had to overcome in our quest to sell diamonds, against all odds. The KPCS has been infiltrated by agents of imperialism and agents of corruption. We have been asking for fairness and now we are vindicated," he said. Zimbabwe would lodge an official complaint with the government of Liberia, the EU and the KPCS, he added. The Sunday Mail has obtained a flurry of e-mails between Mr Fayia and
Ms Nona Deprez, the team leader of the EU's covert slush fund, the Instrument for Stability Operations, Crisis Response and Peace Building.
It is this correspondence between Mr Fayia and Ms Deprez that has blown the lid on the EU's dirty tricks. The e-mails also reveal â€" in a shocking manner â€" the tough hurdles that Zimbabwe had to overcome in the countdown to last November's Kinshasa plenary where the KP finally authorised the export of Chiadzwa diamonds. The secret agreement between Mr Fayia and the EU was code-named "Contract IFS-RRM/2010/247-564". In an e-mail dated March 23 2012, Mr Fayia wrote to the EU, demanding the promised money.
On March 27, the EU wrote back, telling him that he would not get the amount he was demanding. In turn, Mr Fayia dispatched an angry e-mail to the EU, complaining that the European bloc was now betraying him, yet he had fulfiled his side of the deal by submitting a report on Zimbabwe that was subsequently "certified and sanctioned by the
Chairman of KP on Monitoring". Wrote Mr Fayia: "I accepted to head a KP Review Mission that everybody was afraid to undertake, especially as it related to Zimbabwe at the time.
"The contract I signed with you was for six thousand euros (6 000 euros) as was enshrined in the contract and the contract specifically stated that I would receive 60 percent of that amount as my initial payment and then receive the balance of 40 percent upon completion of the mission with a report to be certified and sanctioned by the Chairman of KP on Monitoring."
He added: "All I did was to request for the payment of my balance of 40 percent and nothing more. I was asked to present documents to prove that I undertook the trip to Zimbabwe, which I did. The receipt of those documents was acknowledged by e-mail.
"Moreover, I have a copy of the 2010 KP Review Visit to Zimbabwe which was submitted to the KPCS. After having undergone this very challenging mission, I requested for my balance of 40 percent of the 6 000 euros which was due to me. To my surprise, I received a form to be signed so that I may get 61 euros as what is owed me. This is totally wrong. The contract did not say so."
Mr Fayia, angered by the EU's refusal to pay him for his hatchet job on Zimbabwe, added: "This is totally racist and biased. This would have never happened to a European or an American, but because I am African, I am being unfairly treated by you, Europeans, for a joke (sic) you asked me to do on your behalf when none of you dared to go and face the Zimbabweans as chairman of a trip of that nature. I did not ask to go on this mission; you a sked me to do so. I have all documentations to that effect..." The EU and Mr Fayia are yet to respond to inquiries from The Sunday Mail.
Investigations by this The Sunday Mail have unearthed a sordid paper trail pointing to a scandal that could rock the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP) to the core and drive a wedge between Western and African members of the grouping.
The Liberian Deputy Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy, Mr Kpandel Fayia, visited Zimbabwe from June 30 to July 4 2009, chairing a KP review mission whose mandate was to assess the country's compliance with KP minimum requirements in the Chiadzwa diamond fields before mineral exports could be authorised. Apart from assessing overall compliance, the review mission, headed by Mr Fayia, was tasked with assessing the situation in and around the Chiadzwa diamond fields.
But the EU, in a bid to block Zimbabwe's diamond exports by corruptly influencing the outcome of the review mission's report, secretly paid Mr Fayia 3 600 euro, with a promise to pay a further 2 400 euro on condition that the Liberian official would meet his end of the bargain by compiling a hostile report which the bloc and its Western partners in the KP would use to bar Zimbabwe's exports.
A diamond industry analyst, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 6 000 euro (about US$7 800) can be viewed as a modest amount in rich countries but is a fortune in Liberia, where the monthly salaries of civil servants were recently increased to a paltry US$100.
Mr Fayia will be remembered for crying dramatically during his tour when political activists and officials from anti-Zimbabwe non-governmental organisations narrated to him what they alleged were heart-rending human rights violations by the army and police in Chiadzwa.
The Government said the allegations were concocted in a sinister bid to block Zimbabwe's exports.
After the tour, Mr Fayia and his team wrote a report claiming Zimbabwe was not KP compliant. The report frustrated the Southern African state's hopes of selling diamonds on the international market.
Mr Fayia's report, which disappointed Zimbabweans who were looking forward to the authorisation of exports, recommended the "suspension of Zimbabwe from importing or exporting rough diamonds within the KPCS for a period of at least six months but until such time as a KP team determines that minimum standards have been met".
The cat was let out of the bag after EU officials refused to pay Mr Fayia the outstanding 2 400 euro.
Instead, they have offered to pay him 61 euro, the amount he spent in mailing documents to EU headquarters in Brussels through DHL. Mr Fayia has responded angrily, demanding the promised money and accusing the EU of racism.
The Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Dr Obert Mpofu told the state control media house that the matter has exposed the "duplicity and hypocrisy of some KPCS members".
"These are the obstacles that Zimbabwe has had to overcome in our quest to sell diamonds, against all odds. The KPCS has been infiltrated by agents of imperialism and agents of corruption. We have been asking for fairness and now we are vindicated," he said. Zimbabwe would lodge an official complaint with the government of Liberia, the EU and the KPCS, he added. The Sunday Mail has obtained a flurry of e-mails between Mr Fayia and
Ms Nona Deprez, the team leader of the EU's covert slush fund, the Instrument for Stability Operations, Crisis Response and Peace Building.
It is this correspondence between Mr Fayia and Ms Deprez that has blown the lid on the EU's dirty tricks. The e-mails also reveal â€" in a shocking manner â€" the tough hurdles that Zimbabwe had to overcome in the countdown to last November's Kinshasa plenary where the KP finally authorised the export of Chiadzwa diamonds. The secret agreement between Mr Fayia and the EU was code-named "Contract IFS-RRM/2010/247-564". In an e-mail dated March 23 2012, Mr Fayia wrote to the EU, demanding the promised money.
On March 27, the EU wrote back, telling him that he would not get the amount he was demanding. In turn, Mr Fayia dispatched an angry e-mail to the EU, complaining that the European bloc was now betraying him, yet he had fulfiled his side of the deal by submitting a report on Zimbabwe that was subsequently "certified and sanctioned by the
Chairman of KP on Monitoring". Wrote Mr Fayia: "I accepted to head a KP Review Mission that everybody was afraid to undertake, especially as it related to Zimbabwe at the time.
"The contract I signed with you was for six thousand euros (6 000 euros) as was enshrined in the contract and the contract specifically stated that I would receive 60 percent of that amount as my initial payment and then receive the balance of 40 percent upon completion of the mission with a report to be certified and sanctioned by the Chairman of KP on Monitoring."
He added: "All I did was to request for the payment of my balance of 40 percent and nothing more. I was asked to present documents to prove that I undertook the trip to Zimbabwe, which I did. The receipt of those documents was acknowledged by e-mail.
"Moreover, I have a copy of the 2010 KP Review Visit to Zimbabwe which was submitted to the KPCS. After having undergone this very challenging mission, I requested for my balance of 40 percent of the 6 000 euros which was due to me. To my surprise, I received a form to be signed so that I may get 61 euros as what is owed me. This is totally wrong. The contract did not say so."
Mr Fayia, angered by the EU's refusal to pay him for his hatchet job on Zimbabwe, added: "This is totally racist and biased. This would have never happened to a European or an American, but because I am African, I am being unfairly treated by you, Europeans, for a joke (sic) you asked me to do on your behalf when none of you dared to go and face the Zimbabweans as chairman of a trip of that nature. I did not ask to go on this mission; you a sked me to do so. I have all documentations to that effect..." The EU and Mr Fayia are yet to respond to inquiries from The Sunday Mail.
Source - SM
