By Julio Godoy
PARIS, Dec 14 2004 (IPS)

A suspended prison sentence handed out to former French prime minister Alain Juppe is one of several corruption cases plaguing French politics and business.

Juppe was given a 14-month sentence earlier this month. He was held guilty of presiding over a system of accepting funds for his former party, the Union for the Republic (RPR) from private firms in exchange for public work contracts.

The RPR was then running the Paris municipality. President Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 during which period the violations were reported, but he cannot be prosecuted because he now enjoys presidential immunity.

Several other officials from the RPR were, however, convicted along with Juppe and given suspended sentences. A suspended sentence does not lead to immediate imprisonment, but can if agreed conditions are violated over a period.

Other corruption scandals have been hitting the headlines.

The World Bank announced sanctions last month against the French firm Thales Engineering and Consulting (THEC) and one of its leading executives Jeremy Purce for "fraudulent practices in relation to….the Cambodia demobilisation and reintegration project.."

The 6.9 million dollar World Bank project was set up to assist in the demobilisation of about 30,000 soldiers and their reintegration into civilian life. The French firm was barred on the basis of "multiple misrepresentation of facts" from the company, the World Bank said. "Reliance upon these misrepresentations of facts led to an inappropriate contract award to the winning bidder."

In another case two executives from the French telecommunications firm Alcatel were accused of bribing two former presidents of Costa Rica. The former presidents Jose Maria Figueres (1994-1998) and Miguel Angel Rodriguez (1998-2002) received about a million dollars in bribes for contracts worth 300 million dollars, the Costa Rica judiciary ruled.

Alcatel dismissed both executives and has filed police complaints against them alleging "swindling and diversion of funds." According to an internal Alcatel inquiry, the two paid out 15 million dollars in illegal lobbying in Costa Rica between 2001 and 2003.

The executives argue that they were only acting on Alcatel’s orders. "Alcatel’s complaint is absurd," the lawyer of one of the executives told Costa Rican media.

In yet another high profile case Jean-Charles Marchiani, who was aide to former minister of the interior Charles Pasqua has been placed in preventive custody since August on suspicion of his involvement in the illegal delivery of weapons to Lebanon and Angola.

Pasqua enjoys immunity from prosecution after he got elected to the upper chamber of the French parliament.

"Payment of illegal commissions apparently continues to be the norm," former prosecutor Anne-José Fulgéras, now director in charge of fraud prevention with the consultancy firm Ernst and Young told IPS.

Until1997 French law allowed kickbacks to be accounted as deductible from tax declarations, she said. France signed the international convention against corruption proposed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2000. The OECD is a group of 31 of the more industrialized nations.

The French government has also passed new legislation against corruption, but commissions paid to middlemen can under certain conditions still be used to reduce taxes. That implies legitimacy for such commissions.

"Corruption continues to be to world business what doping is to high-level athletics and sports," Fulgéras said. "Many enterprises are aware of the risks of corruption, and have probably the will to renounce to it, but only if all other competitors also give up kickbacks to get contracts."

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