Guardian: UK Firm PwC Criticized Over Bid for Major Saudi Arabia Contract

Local Editor

One of Britain’s biggest consulting and accountancy firms has been negotiating to land a major contract to help streamline and modernize Saudi Arabia’s military, the Guardian revealed.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) confirmed it had tendered for the project, which will be part of a wholesale transformation of the kingdom’s defense ministry designed to better equip and support its frontline forces.

PwC declined to comment further about the talks. It said there was an “ongoing tender process with a number of participants pitching for work”.

The negotiations, for a deal that could be worth millions to the company, have drawn criticism from campaign groups. Campaigners have condemned the country’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen, pointing out that its airstrikes have martyred civilians and amount to war crimes.

Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s economic affairs program director, urged PwC to explainecd what due diligence it had undertaken before pitching for the work.

“Like any company, international accountancy firms should ensure that they avoid contributing to human rights violations in their operations, or being directly linked to them by their business relationships.

“We’d like to know what due diligence the company has done. The United Nations guiding principles on business and human rights make it clear that a company may be viewed as complicit if they are seen to benefit from abuses committed by another party.”

The Saudi ministry of defense is run by Mohammed bin Salman. The 32-year-old crown prince is said to be the world’s youngest defense minister and is also the kingdom’s deputy prime minister.

Described by critics as an inexperienced firebrand, he has been the architect of the kingdom’s aggression on Yemen.

This year the UN said the conflict had led to more than 22 million Yemenis – up to 80% of the population – requiring humanitarian aid.

Jamie McGoldrick, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, has described it as “an absurd and futile war” and condemned the “mounting civilian casualties caused by escalated and indiscriminate attacks throughout Yemen”.

PwC already has a presence in Saudi Arabia, but it is the company’s UK operation that is behind the defense project.

PwC has launched a “call for resources” – asking specialists and consultants in London whether they would be interested in moving to Riyadh to start the work – because, it has said, it is “currently finalizing the deal”.

The company told staff that the Saudi ministry of defense was undergoing an “ambitious transformation to modernize its armed forces at a size and scale rarely seen before … [this] is at its most critical phase and they need support to undertake this level of change.”

If it wins the contract, PwC is likely to be tasked with transforming several support areas within the defense ministry. The first phase of the work is likely to focus on how to reshape recruitment, resourcing, performance management and strategic workforce planning, and how to manage and communicate change.

PwC declined to respond to what due diligence it had undertaken and how it would answer concerns about working with the Saudi military, the Guardian reported.

The Guardian also asked the Saudi embassy in London about the scale and scope of the project, but it also declined to comment.

Frankental urged PwC to think again. “As any accountancy firm involved in work for the Saudi ministry of defense must know, the Royal Saudi air force has an appalling record in Yemen, with the Saudi-led military coalition having indiscriminately bombed Yemeni homes, hospitals, funeral halls, schools and factories. Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed and injured.”

Anna Macdonald, director of the Control Arms Secretariat, a global coalition working for international arms control, said the UK “should be focusing on trying to stop this terrible conflict, not assisting the Saudi government.”

She added: “British companies should be very cautious indeed in what they are supporting. Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and getting worse by the day.

“The UK government and UK companies are fueling this in continuing to supply bombs and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners. Ordinary Yemenis need access to water, to humanitarian aid and, most pressingly of all, for the incessant bombing of their schools, hospitals, markets and funerals to stop.”

Saudi Arabia has defended its military operations in Yemen. This year the foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, said the critics were wrong. “They criticize us for a war in Yemen that we did not want, that was imposed on us,” he told the BBC. “They criticize us for a war in Yemen that is a just war, that is supported by international law.”

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said firms had to operate by UK and international law, and there was no restriction on accountancy services in Saudi Arabia.

Source: The Guardian, Edited by website team