沪江论坛社区--《经济学家》读译参考（142）：“贿”气

Argentina
阿根廷
Gas and graft
“贿” 气（译/陈继龙）

May 10th 2007 | BUENOS AIRES
From The Economist print edition

A corruption scandal laps around the government
腐败丑闻困扰阿根廷

CAMPAIGNING for Argentina's presidency in 2003, Néstor Kirchner promised voters that he would “renew the political culture”, cleansing it of corruption. （1） The first three years of his term were free of big scandals. But just six months before a presidential election in which he may seek a second term, his government's reputation for honest dealing is facing its first serious test, as details trickle out[1] about a state-administered pipeline project sullied[2] by front companies[3], fake billing and suspicions of bribes. Investigations have not unearthed any evidence of wrongdoing by government officials, and the sums involved are fairly small. But opponents claim that the rot goes deeper.

2003年，内斯托•基什内尔（Néstor Kirchner）在竞选阿根廷总统时曾向选民许诺，他将“重建政治文化”并清除腐败。任期头三年没发生大的丑闻，可就在距离他谋求连任的总统大选还有6个月的当口，其政府清正廉洁的名声首度面临严峻考验——有人透露，在一项国营天然气管道工程中，存在政府领导挂名公司参与、虚假帐单以及贪污受贿等诸多问题。经多次调查，尚未发现任何可以证明政府官员有不正当行为的证据，而且涉嫌金额总数也相当少。不过反对人士声称，腐败问题加重了。

The roots of the scandal lie in Mr Kirchner's energy policy, which relies heavily on price controls. Under Argentina's successful privatisation of its natural-gas industry in 1992, private companies decided where and how much to invest in pipelines. A government regulator authorised tariff increases to pay for the projects.

这桩丑闻根源于基什内尔实行的、严重依赖价格调控的能源政策。1992年，阿根廷天然气产业成功私有化之后，私营企业有权决定管道投资地点和金额。政府监管部门则批准提高关税来为项目提供资金。

（2） When an economic collapse forced a big devaluation of the peso in 2002, the government converted all dollar-denominated tariffs into pesos and froze them. Although the economy is booming again, Mr Kirchner only recently authorised the first tariff increase for residential users in five years. To remedy the resulting shortage, the government has sought to expand a pipeline bringing gas from Bolivia.

2002年阿根廷经济出现崩溃，比索（阿根廷货币）被迫大幅度贬值。当时，政府将关税中所有美元部分均兑换成比索并加以冻结。尽管后来经济再度复苏，但基什内尔直到最近才在五年内首次批准提高住宅用户关税。为了弥补因此造成的能源短缺，政府已准备扩建从玻利维亚输入天然气的管道。

To pay for this, the government set up a trust fund with loans from Spain's Repsol YPF and Brazil's national development bank, the BNDES. It promised to repay them from a new tax on industrial users of gas. The government then told the pipeline's operator, Transportadora de Gas del Norte (TGN), to proceed with the expansion and to send the bill to the trust fund.

为了筹集扩建资金，政府将西班牙Repsol YPF石油公司和巴西国家开发银行（BNDES）提供的贷款设为信托基金，并承诺通过对天然气的工业用户增收一项新税来偿还这些贷款。此后它要求管道运营商——TGN（Transportadora de Gas del Norte）公司继续进行扩建，并由信托基金买单。

TGN is controlled by Techint, an Argentine steel- and pipemaker. It organised competitive tenders for the work. Among the winners was Skanska, a Swedish construction company. As the work proceeded, a judge received an anonymous tip-off[4] that Skanska had evaded tax by obtaining receipts for $400,000 of non-existent services bought from Infiniti, a company with no employees.

隶属阿根廷Technit钢铁和管道制造公司的TGN组织投标商对扩建工程进行了竞标，瑞典Skanska建筑公司成为中标者之一。工程在建过程中，一名法官接到一封匿名举报信，信上指称Skanska公司曾通过取得40万美元“子虚乌有的（non- existent）”服务发票的方式进行逃税，而提供这些服务的都是一家名为Infiniti的皮包公司。

（3） Skanska then began its own inquiry. It found that it had paid 23 different companies for services never rendered; that this money was handed back to Skanska, and that over $4m of it was eventually spent on “improper payments”—though it did not specify to whom. Skanska has sacked seven of its managers in Argentina (all of whom were arrested on May 8th) and has paid the tax authority almost $5m.

Skanska 公司随后展开了自查，发现其曾为一些“子虚乌有的”服务向23家不同的公司付款，而这笔资金后来又退还给Skanska公司，其中有400多万美元最终用作“不正当报酬”——不过它并未说明到底给了谁。Skanska公司已解雇了其派驻阿根廷的7名经理人员（所有人均于5月8日被捕），并向税务当局交纳了近500万美元。

The government points out that the affair involves private companies and that there is no evidence of officials receiving bribes. But there are grounds for suspicion. During the tender won by Skanska, TGN complained in several letters to the regulator that all the bids for work that it reckoned should cost no more than $3.5m had come in at almost $9m. The regulator, who reports to the planning minister, responded that TGN should pay the excess. (The government now says TGN's estimate was too low.) Second, according to court documents Skanska was instructed to do business with Infiniti by the government agency responsible for the trust fund.

政府指出，此事牵涉到私营企业，但尚无证据表明官员收受了贿赂。不过仍有诸多疑点。在Skanska中标的那次竞标过程中，TGN曾多次写信给监管部门，抱怨它原先估计此次工程投标总额不会超过350万美元，结果却达近900万美元。由计划部长直管的该部门答复表示， TGN应负责支付超出数额。（现在政府表示TGN的估算过低。）再有就是庭审文件认为，Skanska公司与Infiniti的交易，来自于信托基金政府主管部门的授意。

（4）There are fears of a cover -up. Last year there was a fire in the tax office where documents relating to the case were kept. The investigating judge had previously requested police protection for those offices, but the interior ministry declined to provide it. On March 27th three armed men entered the house of Carlos Russo, the journalist who broke the story, and stole papers containing much of his work.

很多人还担心有人故意掩盖事实。去年，存放此案相关文件的税务局发生了一起火灾，而此前负责调查的法官曾要求警方保护好那些办公室，但遭到了内政部的拒绝。3月27日，三名武装男子闯入披露此事的记者卡洛斯•鲁索（Carlos Russo）家中，偷走了许多相关文件资料。

But investigations continue. Tax officials have searched 22 offices of firms from which Skanska obtained fake receipts. It transpires[5] that Infiniti had over 130 clients for its non-existent services. Esteban Bullrich, an opposition congressman, estimates that at least $25m of the $285m cost of the pipeline was corruptly diverted.

不过调查并没有中止。税务官员搜查了为Skanska提供虚假发票的各公司的22个办事处，发现Infiniti “子虚乌有的”服务客户超过130家。反对党议员埃斯特班•布尔里希（Esteban Bullrich）估计，管道工程耗费的2.85亿美元中，至少有 2500万美元被挪作他用。

Mr Bullrich and another congressmen have asked the courts to investigate three senior officials at the planning ministry in connection with the case. The minister, Julio de Vido, is Mr Kirchner's closest aide. His ministry has grown swiftly, and now oversees spending of $4.6 billion a year. On taking office Mr Kirchner appointed Mr de Vido's wife to a senior post in the government's internal audit agency.

布尔里希和另一名议员已请求法院对计划部涉案的三名高级官员进行调查。计划部长胡里奥•德•维多（Julio de Vido）是基什内尔总统最亲近的助手，他所领导的计划部发展十分迅速，每年监管的开支现已达46亿美元。基什内尔刚刚就职总统时便任命德•贝多的妻子出任政府内部审计处的一名高官。

The courts are taking a close interest in the ministry's spending. Lavish bus and train subsidies, as well as road tolls, are the subject of some 15 judicial probes. Prosecutors are now scrutinising all public-works projects financed by trust funds similar to the one used for the pipeline.

法院对计划部的开支情况兴趣越来越浓厚。公共汽车和火车补贴以及公路收费过高等问题是15项左右司法调查的重点。检察人员目前正在对所有由信托基金提供资金的公共建设项目进行审查。

（5） Mr Kirchner has often criticised what he sees as the sleaze[6] during the government of Carlos Menem in the 1990s. At the time, Argentines were tolerant of such allegations because the economy was growing strongly. The government must hope they are again in forgiving mood.

基什内尔认为上世纪90年代卡洛斯•梅内姆（Carlos Menem）政府执政期间存在一些“不光彩的事情”，并常常予以抨击。由于适逢经济蓬勃发展，阿根廷民众对他这种指摘并不在意。这回政府必须再一次寄希望于人民“心胸豁达”了。

[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

沪江答题纸加载中……
(OXFORD)
1. trickle out 慢慢流出；（消息）逐渐传出
2. sully v. 弄脏，玷污
3. front company 为隐瞒秘密或非法活动而建立的合法公司
4. tip-off n. 密报
5. transpire v. 与it和that从句结合使用; 通常不用于进行时态.（指事情、秘密等）公开, 为人所知
6. sleaze n. 不道德的行为（尤指与性、谎言有关）

[此贴子已经被作者于2007-11-28 21:35:11编辑过]