Bakau Bakau,
 
I'm sorry to have to say no, I refuse to apologize to Alex or even think of retracting my statements about him. This is not about an individaul IMF official. It is about a pattern of abuse and corruption that, until now, was known to exist but did not lend itself to easy exposure. This is a public issue on which I deemj myself suitably qualified to comment and express my opinions, like everybody else who desire to do the same. So, with all due respect, I repeat that I refuse to apologize or even think of retracting my statement. I have expressed my opinion on the matter and you are welcome to disagree with my views on the matter. We will agree to disagree.
 
Baba
 
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:09:58 +0100
Subject: Re: [>-<] Senegal admits bribing IMF official (Ansu and Baba Galeh Jallow)
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]

"Where is the sophistication in traveling with that huge sum of bribery money from Dakar to Barcelona via Paris where he could have been stopped by customs for breaking the law.  He should have cancelled his trip, call the IMF together with his successor in Dakar and tell his boss that he will not return until the money is returned to the Senegalese authorities.  as things stand now,  Alex seems to have broken Senegalese law by not declaring it at customs.  He may have also avened French and Spanish laws for the same reason unless authorities were in the loop.  Where's the sophistication?  What I see is naivety mixed with a dose of arrogance by flouting the laws of Senegal, France and Spain.  Whatever the outcome of the investigations, the bottom line is that this bribery scandal is not good for Senegal neither it is going to enhance the career of Alex Segura at the Fund."

Hear, hear...

You really did beat me to it.

In retrospect, Segura appears merely like a bumbling fool in a French farce than than the metropolitan sophisticate he is being portrayed. And the farce is painfully grafted in this most bumbling of acts:

"With Mr. Segura worried about missing his flight and, concerned that there was no place to leave the money safely in Senegal, he decided to take the money aboard the plane."

So he was more concerned about missing a flight than what is - at any rate, on circumstantial evidence - a much life-changing matter of clearing his name in a "bribery attempt"? A more sophisticated individual  - or someone not bereft with basic commonsense or knowledge of what media reaction would be when the details are leaked or emerge somehow - would drop everything and head straight to the media (if he does not trust the Senegalese authorities, as the Press Release from the IMF External Relations appears, sotto voce, to indicate) and make the matter a public event, which it would inevitably have become.

But it is possible to understand why he acted in the bumbling fashion he did: the IMF rules on gifts, donation, etc., are a classic example of how to confuse when one finds oneself in a situation that is ambiguous and likely to compromise. In Section VI (External Activities), #32 (" Acceptance of gifts, decorations and honors "), of the "IMF Code of Conduct for Staff," we are told:

<<You should never solicit gifts or favors in connection with your IMF duties. Gifts that are offered should normally be declined. However, you may accept a small gift when it would create an embarrassment to refuse it. Under current rules, if its value is clearly less than $100, you may keep it and need not report it. If the value of the gift could exceed $100, you should report it, along with your estimate of its value. The gift may have to be turned in for an appraisal if there is a question about its value.>>

URL: http://www.imf.org/external/hrd/code.htm#VI

This may strike one as straightforwardly commonsensical but it is actually hermeneutically highly ambiguous. The rule starts with self-abnegation (self-denial in the face of temptations) and then uses 5 sentences to vitiate what is a very clear rule with extra rules that are the locus classicus of how to badly signal when a conduct can be compromising. To analogise, it is a bit like saying 'you should never use  your left hand to accept anything but your right hand has room to manoeuvre what the left hand is explicitly forbidden to accept'.

To avoid a repeat of Segura's bumbling act - and this is a positive spin on a compromising situation of which, alas, we would never fully know the full unbiased details - the rule on accepting gifts, donations, etc., should be changed and re-written much more clearly, that is to say, unambiguously, to state explicitly that under no circumstances should an IMF official receive gifts qua their status as officials of their organisation. This is a standard anti-corruption prerequisite in virtually all non- political, that is, non-partisan, public institutions in the West generally. Why should the IMF - or other global institutions - be any different?

Although the facts of the case, such as they are, remain unsettled and we are more or less obliged (not least because some form of sub iudice quarantine shackles unbridled commentary on the matter as the investigations are still ongoing) to refrain from casting wider aspersions; it is still possible, nonetheless, to form anecdotal conclusions, of some sorts, from what we already know about the case. That is to say, the endemic corruption in African countries would not be this widespread and entrenched without enablers in the donor institutions and countries. And the Segura case showed one way in which the corruption is actually done. If Wade can casually give money in this manner (suggesting that this was done on more than one occasion, perhaps) one does  wonder whether the previous IMF Resident Representative did receive something along the same lines of Segura but unlike Segura kept the matter, shall we say, on "on the down low"? Just speculating.

2009/10/27 <[log in to unmask]>
Bakau,
 
You would have been right had it turned out that the details you've delineated in your post were my own fabrication.  But I said at the time, I was merely reposting reports from the Senegalese press.  You cautioned then, and I agreed, that we should wait until things become clearer.  Both Baba and I refrained from further comment until IMF came out with a third version (each contradicting the other) of what they think transpired - a fact you've conveniently omitted from your complaints because, I presume, it's the IMF and not some run-of-the-mill African institution. 
 
That said, I believe that your demand for an apology or retraction is premature if not downright gullible because the investigations by the Fund have barely begun.  It would appear from your postings on this issue that you know Alex personally and he could even be a friend which makes it even the more imperative, if not honorable, to vouch for his character.  That's what friends are for.  But to say that because it was proven that Alex Sagura was not arrested in Paris and that he consulted with his successor in Dakar before boarding his flight was enough to absolve him of all responsibility in this corruption scandal that threatens the entire IMF/Bank Senegal portfolio is absurd.
 
I wish I were as impressed with the 'sophistication' of Alex as you are.  Where is the sophistication in traveling with that huge sum of bribery money from Dakar to Barcelona via Paris where he could have been stopped by customs for breaking the law.  He should have cancelled his trip, call the IMF together with his successor in Dakar and tell his boss that he will not return until the money is returned to the Senegalese authorities.  as things stand now,  Alex seems to have broken Senegalese law by not declaring it at customs.  He may have also avened French and Spanish laws for the same reason unless authorities were in the loop.  Where's the sophistication?  What I see is naivety mixed with a dose of arrogance by flouting the laws of Senegal, France and Spain.  Whatever the outcome of the investigations, the bottom line is that this bribery scandal is not good for Senegal neither it is going to enhance the career of Alex Segura at the Fund.
 
A. Koroma
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: bakau bakau <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Mon, Oct 26, 2009 11:43 pm
Subject: [>-<] Senegal admits bribing IMF official (Ansu and Baba Galeh Jallow)

[ This e-mail is posted to Gambia|Post e-Gathering by bakau bakau 
<[log in to unmask]> ]


Ansu and Baba Galleh,

I generally read your informative inputs on these boards but I think that you 
two owe an apology to Alex for your initial smears about his integrity when this 
story first broke. But considering that you don't know Alex from Adam Ant, maybe 
not an apology but a retraction. 

I don't much trust homo sapiens when large amounts of cash is concerned but I 
came in at the time you guys flew off the handle and simply cautioned that you 
wait till all the info comes out. Several of us heard then and now that Alex was 
NEVER stopped by authorities at any airport; contrary to what you reported here. 
He told a colleague about the money BEFORE he left Dakar and turned in the money 
as soon as he got to Spain. i.e voluntarily.  

As I said, I wasn't gonna go on a limb for Alex but I also knew that he was more 
sophisticated than to try to launder money in such a crude manner. Lord knows 
that some of us have been in somewhat similar circumstances. On the question of 
the motivation of President Wade for instructing a cash gift, I got no idea and 
anyone's guess is as good as mine.  


--- On Mon, 10/26/09, Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Baba Galleh Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: RE: [>-<] Senegal admits bribing IMF official
> To: "New GambiaPost2" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, October 26, 2009, 11:59 AM
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> If this is indeed the case, our hunch that IMF
> officials in corrupt African countries are bribed to write
> favorable reports would have been confirmed. Thanks for
> updating us on this crucial development. I hear Morr Ndajeh
> (Wade, 82?) or Laye Njomborr, as Senghor called him - is
> literally panting and shaking with the urge to be
> re-elected for another seven-year term.
> 
>  
> 
> Baba
>  
> 
> 
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [>-<] Senegal admits bribing IMF official
> Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:55:12 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Soulayman
> Ndene Ndiaye, Prime Minister and Me Madické
> Nian, Foreign Minister of Senegal have both admitted
> that the CFA 65 million (approx. 100,000 Euros) was a gift
> from President Ablaye Wade to Alex Segura who was until
> recently the IMF Resident Representative to Senegal and The
> Gambia.  IMF has requested President Wade to provide a
> written account of circumstances surrounding the large sum
> of money that now appears to have been a bribe from
> President Wade to Mr. Alex Segura.  Serious business
> indeed for both Senegal and Alex Segura.
> 
> A. Koroma
>                     
> Windows Live: 
> Friends
> get your Flickr, Yelp, and Digg updates when they e-mail
> you. 
> 


      




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