Mario Carrascalao: "Xanana's daughter benefited" from government rice contract

FRETILIN BANCADA PARLAMENTAR 
Media Release Dili
17 September 2009

As a parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into alleged corruption involving rice imports gets underway in Dili today, Timor Leste's Second Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Mario Carrascalao, has confirmed that the Prime Minister's daughter Zenilda Gusmao benefited from a government contract to import rice. 

The parliamentary inquiry into the procurement, contracting and acquisition of rice since 2007 was initiated by FRETILIN with the support of MPs from four other parties.

FRETILIN MP and party vice-president, Mr Arsenio Bano, said the inquiry would examine reports of fraud, corruption and distribution problems affecting the importation of government rice.

Deputy Prime Minister Carrascalao told Australian radio on September 12 that Zenilda Gusmao 'was a part of one of the businesses' (Prima Food) given government contracts to import rice. Mr Carrascalao - who supposedly was appointed to combat corruption - told SBS Radio he did not know whether Mr Gusmao knew his daughter was a shareholder in Prima Food when he awarded the contract. Mr Carrascalao added he did not consider this to be a case of corruption 'because others were not disadvantaged to the advantage of the Prime Minister's daughter.'

FRETILIN MP and party vice-president, Mr Arsenio Bano, said Mr Carrascalao's statements (link to SBS interview: http://media.sbs.com.au/audio//portuguese-090912-ac7.mp3) contradicted the line spun by some government representatives, businessmen linked to the government and apologists in the Australian media that Zenilda resigned from Prima Food before it got the government contract.

Mr Bano said: "Interestingly Prime Minister Gusmao himself has not to my knowledge ever claimed that his daughter quit the company as a shareholder before the rice contracts were awarded. In fact, the resignation alleged by some, including the businessmen who ran to Mr Gusmao's defence, was not even demonstrated on the face of the documents put forward. Neither has the business registry ever been formally notified of such a resignation," said Mr Bano.

"FRETILIN MPs doubt that Ms Gusmao ever resigned from the company and doubt the authenticity of the documents purporting to show this.

"A media campaign by the Gusmao government's highly paid Sydney-based public relations consultant, Scope PR, to spin this 'resignation' angle appears to have worked with some, including the ABC's Media Watch, with the journalist who broke the 'ricegate' story becoming the subject of unfair attacks.

"However, Media Watch itself failed to properly analyze the documents purporting to support the 'resignation' story. Had they looked into it more, they would have seen that the facts just did not hold. Recently the ABC in at least three separate radio and TV reports ran with the same 'resignation' spin. Again, with little critical analysis of the facts. However, in one interview, Mr Carrascalao has exposed this fraudulent attempt to distance Mr Gusmao from any wrongdoing.

"Simply put, Mr Carrascalao, who is known for his frankness and honesty, has dropped Mr Gusmao right in it.

"The biggest beneficiaries of the rice importation program are people close to the Gusmao government, especially relatives of the Prime Minister and other ministers, who have been granted lucrative rice acquisition contracts, and in some cases have not delivered on their contractual obligations despite having been advanced the money," Mr Bano said.

"The program's benefits to the general public are less obvious. Right now there is a shortage of rice in the market and government-subsidised rice supposed to be sold to consumers for between US$10 to $12 per 33-kilogram sack is currently being sold for

US$22."

Mr Bano warned the government would seek to interfere with the committee's investigations and added: "We need to complete the investigation soon, before the government brings more multi-million dollar projects to acquire rice in the 2010 budget proposal."

For further information, please contact Arsenio Bano MP on +670 741 9505