Dubai: A company’s salesman and general manager have been accused of offering Dh50,000 in bribe to a Dubai Civil Defence lieutenant to accelerate the process of issuing them 38 safety certificates.
The Emirati lieutenant at the Dubai Civil Defence was said to be at his duty station when a Moroccan salesman, who works at the company that imports and fixes fire alarm safety systems, visited his desk to follow up on 38 transactions in August.
The salesman had earlier applied to issue permits to import, sell, distribute and fix fire alarm safety equipment in Dubai.
When he was told by the lieutenant that the permits required a standard time of two to three weeks to be processed, the salesman asked the official if it was possible to shorten the period.
Records said the lieutenant checked out with his superiors and was told to notify the Moroccan that the request to shorten the period was impossible.
The Moroccan then asked the lieutenant to provide him with his mobile number and when the latter refused to give him his number, the salesman insisted.
Justifying that he needed the number to communicate with him later so they could become friends, the lieutenant kept the Moroccan in the office drinking coffee.
Records said the lieutenant notified his superior, who demanded him to go along with the salesman and take his number to know what his future intentions were.
The lieutenant returned to his office, according to records, and took the Moroccan’s number and promised to communicate with him later.
Afterwards, the Emirati called up the Moroccan and met him in a café where the salesman offered the lieutenant Dh50,000 in bribe to speed up the process of having the 38 certificates issued within three days.
The lieutenant and his superiors cooperated with Dubai Police and the Moroccan salesman was arrested in a sting operation. The company’s Pakistani general manager was also apprehended for aiding and abetting the Moroccan in bribing the Dubai Civil Defence official.
Prosecutors charged the Moroccan suspect with offering a bribe to the lieutenant to abuse his authority and help him speed up the processing of the permits without carrying out the required procedures to examine the equipment within two weeks.
Prosecutors also accused the Pakistani suspect of abetment.
The suspects pleaded not guilty before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
The lieutenant claimed to prosecutors that the Moroccan offered to pay him Dh50,000 against shortening the period required for issuing the 38 permits.
“I alerted my boss and he asked me to go along with the suspect … then we cooperated with the police that arrested the two suspects in a sting operation,” he testified to prosecutors.
The trial continues.
