WORLD NEWS
8
SWITZERLAND
Extradition approval
Former SNC-Lavalin executive Riadh Ben Aissa to
be returned to Canada to face fraud, bribery and
money laundering charges
R
iadh Ben Aissa, a former executive vice president of SNC-Lavalin,
is set to be returned to Canada to face fraud, bribery and money
laundering charges. Mr Ben Aissa lost an extradition appeal hearing
in Switzerland, where he is currently in custody.
According to Canada’s National Post, an extradition ruling by Switzerland’s
Federal Criminal Court dealing with the case of an unnamed Tunisian-
Canadian being held on fraud and conspiracy charges relates to Mr Ben
Aissa. Court documents reveal that Canadian authorities requested his
extradition in January.
Mr Ben Aïssa parted company with SNC-Lavalin on February 11 last
year, along with vice president controller Stéphane Roy and CEO Pierre
Duhaime, as questions began to be raised about their conduct.
Two weeks later, an investigation by SNC-Lavalin unearthed a series
of suspect payments connected to its activities in North Africa totalling
CA$ 35 million (US$ 35.5 million).
Mr Ben Aissa is wanted in Canada on corruption charges which also relate
to alleged bid rigging on a Montreal hospital contract. CA$ 22.5 million
(US$ 21.8 million) is alleged to have been used to bribe public officials in
order to win the McGill Health Centre contract.
He was arrested in Switzerland in 2012, where authorities have also been
investigating his activities in North Africa. The extradition is expected to
take place in the coming months.
Separately, another former SNC-Lavalin executive – Kevin Wallace – has
been charged with bribing a foreign official by the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police (RCMP). These charges and allegations relate to the Padma Bridge
project in Bangladesh, where SNC-Lavalin was to have acted as the client’s
engineer.
PANAMA
The first four 2,812 tonne gates for the new locks of the Panama
Canal have arrived on site. According to the Panama Canal Authority (PCA),
the development is now 62% complete. Built by subcontractor Cimolai, the
first four steel gates are 57.6 m long, 10 m wide and 30.19 m high. They will
be installed in the middle chamber of the new locks in the Atlantic side. A
total of 16 rolling gates (eight for each new lock complex) will be installed
to expand the canal, all of which are being shipped four at a time from Italy.
Work on the US$ 5.25 billion scheme to construct a third set of locks for the
canal started in 2007 and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014.
EUROPE
Construction
output down
Construction output in the
European Union fell -1.1% year-on-
year in July, according to Eurostat.
The steepest falls were in Portugal
(-16.3%), Bulgaria (-6.9%), Slovakia
(-6.8%) and Poland (-6.4%). The
highest increases were seen in
Romania (+14.2%), Spain (+2.9%),
Hungary and the UK (both +2%).
Building construction output
decreased
-1%
year-on-year
across member states, while civil
engineering dropped -2.3%.
However, comparing July with
June this year, construction was up
+0.7% in the 28 nation bloc.
The strongest month-on-month
increases were registered in Romania
(+8.6%), Portugal (+5.1%), Poland
(+5.0%) and the Czech Republic
(+4.9%). Decreases were seen in
Sweden (-4.1%), Spain andHungary
(both -1.6%), and Slovenia (-0.5%).
Building construction output
increased +1.3% month-on-month,
while civil engineering was up
+0.5%.
AFRICA
Investment
fund
The African Development Bank
(AfDB) and Made in Africa
Foundation (MIAF) have launched
an infrastructure fund for the
continent that aims to raise up to
US$ 500 million by the first half of
2014.
Fundraising for the Africa50 fund
was launched on 26 September
at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange
in New York, US. The AfDB and
MIAF claim it is Africa’s largest
infrastructure fund to-date.
The objective of Africa50 is to
reduce the time required to develop
infrastructure projects in Africa,
speeding up project preparation and
delivery from a current average of
seven years to a target of less than
three years.
The launch of the Africa50 fund
comes after AfDB reported that
investment of US$ 93 billion a year
was needed to 2020 to close Africa’s
infrastructure deficit.
JAPAN
Fukushima
containment
The Japanese government has
announced new measures to deal
with on-going contamination
of groundwater at the stricken
Fukushima nuclear power plant.
These include sinking frozen soil
walls around the perimeter of the
plant, lowering groundwater levels
upstream of the facility and paving
the surface of the contaminated
area with asphalt.
The Japanese government said it
will fund the most urgent measures,
including the frozen soil wall. The
budget for this work has been put at
JPY 47 billion (US$ 470 million).
Soil freezing involves sinking
boreholes into and then circulating
coolant through them to create
a contiguous cut-off wall. With
a total length of some 1,000 m
and a depth of 27 m, the project
is thought to be the largest ever
application of soil freezing.
Attempts
to
contain
contamination
around
the
Fukushima plant have already seen
the construction of sodium silicate
cut-off-walls on the sea-side of the
plant.
UK
Construction
products
market up
Sales of construction products in
the UK continued to strengthen
during the third quarter of 2013
following the recovery in the
second quarter, according to the
Construction Products Association.
Private housing and infrastructure
remained the key drivers behind
the growth, according to the
Association’s State of Trade survey.
Conditions are also set to improve
further over the next three months,
with 67% of heavy and 66% of
light side companies surveyed
reporting that they expected sales
to rise in the fourth quarter.
However, the survey also revealed
inflation was an issue across the
industry, with higher energy and
transport costs.
international
construction
october 2013
