Looking for truth about BAE, bungs and the Czechs

There is no shame in the former communist countries. The public is completely used to being lied to, and its confidence in pretty much all politicians is zero.

A recent Czech prime minister was questioned as to how he managed to buy a luxury house on his ministerial salary when previously he had been a train driver. He said his grandfather had found the money in the attic. He was only caught out when at the same time as he was spinning his grandfather story, another businessman said he had loaned him the cash.

The same prime minister was also asked what his wife did in the nightclub (brothel) she had worked in. "She was only the cleaner," was the answer the Czech public was asked to accept.

Almost without exception, people are in politics in a place like the Czech Republic to make money. They only hide the bribes to avoid tax.

But, just as the only way to stop drug addiction is to halt the supply of drugs, corruption can only disappear if no one is around with a bulky envelope to pass under the table. A local friend of mine needed a difficult permission from the town authority.

At a key meeting he noticed an official discreetly removing a package, wrapped in silver foil, from a briefcase. My pal assumed it was a bribe. For once, he was wrong: it really was a sandwich the official's wife had made for his lunch.

Stealing from a bank is arguably a crime that only hurts the bank — and, if the theft is big enough, its shareholders. But corruption is stealing from society at large.

If the Gripen fighters genuinely were not needed, and only voted for because of the tempting personal incentives, that means the loss of £1 billion which could have helped transform the dilapidated railways or improved the roads or refurbished hospitals in the rundown nation.

Within that £1 billion cost, of course, were the bribes and the kickbacks. Czech society is generally still childishly ignorant of commercial matters. That extra money had to come from somewhere, and it came on the price.

I am sure BAE kept careful accounts, even if they aren't very accessible at the moment. But it will only be a matter of time, probably, before one of the envelope-takers spills the beans. He (probably not she) will be delighted with the celebrity.

In fact, ex-Foreign Minister Jan Kavan did so inadvertently in a joint newspaper-television sting in 2006, which set off the current international investigation. In the face of growing overwhelming evidence (and a new government), the Czech anti-corruption police finally got going and as a start, Mensdorff-Pouilly was arrested in Austria earlier this year, the first of the "agents" in the Gripen deal's web.

There should be no mistake: the SFO in London is right to bring to light the murky underhand world that distorts important decisions and affects the pockets of millions of people.