by Mohammad Fadhel
MANAMA, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Bahrain has launched a campaign to stamp out corruption with a series of arrests of business executives in the Gulf island state.
Two marketing directors at Aluminium Bahrain, a pillar of the country's fledgling industries, have been referred to the public prosecution on charges of pocketing commissions on aluminium sales.
A foreign executive and eight employees of the national carrier Gulf Air, which is facing serious financial problems, have been questioned on suspicion of misappropriation of funds.
An executive of the Arab Shipbuilding and Repair Yard Co, a Bahrain-based Arab firm in which the government has an 18 percent stake, has also been accused of misappropriation of funds and abuse of power, newspapers reported.
Mahmud Kawhaji, deputy executive president of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Co, a state firm overseeing the campaign, said the fight against corruption was a priority for Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa.
"The Bahraini leadership is pressing ahead with reforms... and we will not spare any minister implicated in corruption," the crown prince was quoted by the local press as saying.
Charges of corruption against officials have previously been rarely made public in Bahrain, as in most other Gulf Arab monarchies.
"The accused are not mere employees... but commercial directors who handle transactions involving big sums of money," Kawhaji said.
Established in 2006 with a capital of two billion dinars (5.3 billion dollars), Mumtalakat handles the state's shareholdings in 33 companies, whose total value is estimated at 900 million dinars (2.3 billion dollars).
Stamping out corruption in the public sector has been a major demand of the mainly Shiite opposition in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, reflecting the sentiments of a public angered by the erosion of its purchasing power.
Earlier this month, the government approved a 15 percent hike in the wages of civil servants and military personnel.
The move followed demands in parliament and by the labour union for a salary boost to match the rising cost of living in Bahrain, the only Gulf state which does not export crude oil and whose economy relies heavily on banking and other services.
The average salary of a civil servant is around 300 dinars (800 dollars) a month. An ordinary soldier would earn roughly the same with allowances, while an officer would average around 600 dinars (1,600 dollars) monthly.
The anti-corruption campaign has been generally welcomed in the country, although some have voiced doubts it will reach those at the top of the ladder.
"This campaign is very important," but it should be "transparent" and introduce safeguards against future graft, said Abdul Aziz Abel, an independent lawmaker who chairs parliament's financial committee.
The campaign has so far targeted only junior employees, but has not touched senior officials, Abel said.
"I hope that no minister who is proven to be involved in corruption will be spared so that the campaign will have credibility," said MP Jassem Hussein.
Hussein, a member of the parliamentary bloc of the Islamic National Accord Association, the main political movement of the Shiite majority, said he believed the crown prince was sincere about fighting corruption.
"I support him, because corruption is one of the main causes of the deterioration of living standards in Bahrain," he said.
In its annual Corruption Perceptions Index released last week, the graft watchdog Transparency International ranked Bahrain as fourth least corrupt on a scale of 14 countries surveyed in the Middle East.
Bahrain scored 5.0, in the middle between zero, which is highly corrupt, and 10, which is deemed very clean.
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