Anti-corruption
investigators in Beijing are expected to launch an inquiry into
multibillion-dollar deals Lucent Technologies and others secured to
supply the country’s vast telecom market.
?
Lucent Technologies,
one of the biggest US telecom equipment makers, has reportedly
submitted an 800-page report to investigators into possible
violations of US anti-corruption laws involving its China
operations.
South China
Morning Post quotes sources as saying that the anti-corruption
bureau of Beijing Municipal People’s Procuratorate is having the
report translated.
They believe investigators will use
the report to launch a comprehensive probe of the country’s telecom
industry. Investigators are hopeful the report will provide names
of individuals and companies implicated in the violations.
Most of the country’s telecom
companies are Lucent clients, including China Telecom, China Unicom
and China Netcom. Some officials and operators have allegedly
received huge bribes for approving purchases of equipment worth
hundreds of millions of US dollars from both foreign and domestic
makers.
Officials from Lucent’s China
operations said they were not aware of the report being handed to
investigators, while the company’s Asia-Pacific office declined to
comment.
In April, Lucent Technologies
announced it had dismissed four senior executives from its China
operations for allegedly violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices
Act.
Curiosity was provoked last week
when China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom exchanged senior
managers, apparently to “curb irrational industry competition.”
(CRI November 9, 2004)