|
|
|
| home
| about IDEAs | contact
| archives |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Cheney
lobbied India on Enron's Behalf |
|
Peter
Spiegel in Washington, Michael Peel in London
and Adrian Michaels in New York
|
Printable
Version |
|
|
Dick Cheney,
the US vice-president, spoke to Indian government officials
last June in an effort to help Enron recoup large debts
on an investment in an Indian power plant, the White
House said on Friday.
Ari Fleischer, spokesman for President George W. Bush,
said Mr Cheney raised the issue of the plant in Dabhol
because of US taxpayer exposure to losses in the investment.
The project had been insured by the Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), a taxpayer-funded government
agency that provides political risk insurance to American
companies investing in developing countries.
"The United States taxpayers have an exposure to
risk and loss through OPIC," Mr Fleischer said.
"It's not uncommon for [companies] to have exposures
which do require contacts between American officials
and government officials in other countries to minimise
those risks to taxpayers."
The discussions occurred on June 27 when Mr Cheney raised
the subject with Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi,
according to e-mails obtained by the New York Daily
News. Two other e-mails indicate Mr Bush was also to
raise the subject with Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the
plans were scrapped, the Daily News reported.
Last month, Enron and its fellow US investors in the
plant, General Electric and Bechtel, sought to recoup
roughly $200m of their investment in the plant by filing
a claim with OPIC. They argued the Indian government
expropriated the plant after Enron invested more than
$1bn in the $2.9bn project.
Enron pulled out of the project after the Maharashtra
State Electricity Board in western India ceased drawing
power from the plant in May, saying it could not afford
the electricity tariff, and stopped payment of bills.
Maharashtra had agreed to be the sole buyer of electricity
from the plant.
Mary Matalin, a spokeswoman for Mr Cheney, told the
Daily News that Enron had not asked the vice-president
to raise the issue, saying he asked Ms Gandhi about
the status of the plant because the item was including
in briefing papers. She said Mr Cheney did not remember
the conversation.
In a separate development, leading accounting firms
gave a cautious welcome to the Securities and Exchange
Commission's proposals for stricter regulation of breaches
of professional ethics that fell short of criminality.
"We think that the proposals are leading in the
right direction," Ernst & Young said in a statement.
"They should serve to strengthen the profession's
quality monitoring and disciplinary processes in ways
pretty much unprecedented in the profession's 100 year
history."
KPMG, which was one of three Big Five firms that fought
hard against the SEC's plans to tighten auditor independence
rules in 2000, also said it supported "the aims
of the proposal".
Accounting professionals said they are encouraged Mr
Pitt said nothing about alleged conflicts of interest
involved in doing consulting work for audit clients.
Leading firms attacked Arthur Levitt, Mr Pitt's predecessor,
for his insistence that firms' desires to gain and retain
lucrative consulting contracts risked jeopardising the
independence of audits.
MORE ON ENRON
>>
January 22,
2002.
[Source: Observer January 20 ,2002]
|
|
|
|