Dubai, September 11: In a case of bribe of Dh386,000 allegedly demanded by the former manager of a hotel in Dubai from a company for helping them win a tender bid, the witness told the Court of First Instance on Wednesday that the defendant had asked for the money.
The Lebanese witness, who is employed with the same hotel, Bavaria Hotel, said that the ex-manager, a 47-year-old German, had in May 2008 asked the company for commission of about seven per cent of a Dh5.5 million deal for providing the hotel with some necessities including towels and blankets.
He is also accused of divulging confidential details of the hotel including prices and details of bids made by other clients.
“I had a look personally to text messages exchanged between the defendant and a manager from the bid winning company. In those messages, the defendant asked for extra commissions to be transferred to his account in HSBC bank,” the witness stated in the court.
He told the court that the former manager sought to make the bidding companies think that he was a decision maker in approving the tenders. When defence lawyer Ali Shamsy asked the witness whether the police or Public Prosecution got hold of those messages, the witness said that the hotel simply got a print of the messages but never handed them over to the authorities. Al Shamsy told the court that the testimony given by the witness showed that he was the defendant’s enemy rather than a neutral party.
A Syrian executive of the hotel earlier told the police that the defendant was a manager and a 40 per cent partner in the hotel.
According to the witness, the defendant’s job was limited to shortlisting the candidates eligible for taking part in the bid for tenders, based on the quality of their products.
From the four companies that had entered the bids, an Ireland-based company was selected. The defendant said that the company offered the best quality.
That company’s representative in Dubai reportedly told the Syrian witness that the accused was pressuring the head of the company in Ireland to pay him Dh386,000. The defendant allegedly told the company’s director that he had the final word in the tenders. The Syrian said that he had learnt that the defendant had divulged confidential details bids made by other companies, harming their hotel’s interests.
–Agencies