Annex vii12
Letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner
for Standards from Mr Arif Husain, General Mediterranean Holding
(UK) Ltd
I refer to your letter of 5 November 2001.
I am unable to comment on the veracity or the accuracy
of the information given to you by third parties. You refer to
the commemorative brochure of General Mediterranean Holding, which
was issued to mark its 20th anniversary. It is not a report. You
are right that it lists the name of Mr Vaz as a director of General
Mediterranean Holding (UK) Ltd. The reference to Cipaf or any
other group company is not relevant as these are totally separate
entities with their own Boards of Directors and operational executives.
The date the brochure went to print was 13 April 1999, after Mr
Vaz agreed that his name could be included as a director of General
Mediterranean Holding (UK) Ltd.
We would point out to you that General Mediterranean
Holding SA prints its consolidated annual report voluntarily and
not as a statutory requirement. The layout of the accounts in
skeleton form is usually set up as and when the information becomes
available. The go-ahead for the final print is only given after
the accountants have signed off their report. The accountants's
signing off date for 1998 was 1 July 1999 and as you will notice
from their report on page 6, they only comment on pages 7 to 21.
Any information before or after these pages is outside the scope
of their report. Mr Vaz's name on page 24 would seem to be an
oversight resulting from the aforementioned skeleton layout of
the 1998 report.
Finally, the matter seems to be taking up a disproportionate
amount of time and we hope that the above information has finally
dealt with all your questions.
6 November 2001
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