BAMAKO by Aribert Raphael (smart books to read txt) 📖

it to the woman.
“Ah yes, Madame Kartz,” the woman said, reading her name on the card, “and Madame Gauthier, I presume? Good morning. Your husband phoned last week, I remember. I’m Madame Sylvia. We were expecting you.”
“Good morning,” Chantal and Talya replied in unison.
“Please, sit down,” Madame Sylvia said, indicating a sofa beside her workstation. “Monsieur Kane won’t be long.” They did as bidden, and Madame Sylvia returned to her typing.
The room was small and triangular, a very awkward shape for an office. Facing Madame Sylvia, and at one end of the longer wall, a second door opened at an angle to where Chantal and Talya sat, probably giving access to Monsieur Kane’s private office. The open-windows behind the couch awarded them with the street noise but with none of the freshness of the outside. The air was dusty and smelly.
While Talya pondered this department’s use of mining fees and taxes, Monsieur Kane came out of his office in a huff. He looked annoyed. He shot a glance at the two women then turned toward Madame Sylvia, saying, “I don’t want to be disturbed for the next hour.” He then focused on his two guests once again. “Come in, ladies, come in.”
Monsieur Kane was the man behind the Minister, the man who made all the decisions. He was the person who made all the recommendations and the Minister heeded his every word.
He was short, stocky but not fat. His body was muscle bound. His shiny black face was pleated like that of a bulldog, and among the creases, piercing black eyes, alert and watchful, observed the two women as they made their way into his office. This man would be dangerous if crossed.
Once the polite but frosty introductions were over, they sat down in the black leather-covered chairs that furnished part of this elongated room. Their host then launched into what turned out to be a tirade of recriminations.
He began by asking: “Madame Kartz, do you have a legal advisor, a lawyer here in Bamako to look after your interests?” Talya looked at him, taken aback by this unexpected request.
“No, I haven’t retained a lawyer,” she replied matter-of-factly, “nor did I think I needed one. I’m only here to review what’s been done with the applications made by our company in regards to properties we would like to explore.”
“Madame Kartz. We have received permit applications, incomplete I might add, for twelve properties, from a Monsieur Savoi.” He peered into Talya’s eyes in search of a reaction. He got none and went on, shaking his head, “This Monsieur Savoi claims to be an associate of yours, to be acting on your orders, but, he couldn’t show us a power-of-attorney, which would confirm this. He showed us an agreement that was signed by your president, naming him as your agent, which is quite different to having a power-of-attorney authorizing him to sign any application he would submit on behalf of your company. However, what concerns this ministry most of all is the fact that your Monsieur Savoi has been blatantly bribing officers of this department to file these applications.”
The word bribing hit Talya between the eyes, but she didn’t flinch and let him go on.
“Monsieur Savoi says that he was asked by your president to get these twelve permits to explore all of the properties at the same time.”
Sitting in the black chair facing them, legs apart, elbows on his knees, Monsieur Kane’s posture looked more like that of an angry dog, ready to growl at the slightest provocation, than that of a Department Director. Talya and Chantal continued to listen.
“The Government of Mali is not in the habit of being bribed in the distribution of a dozen permits to anyone, not even to a company such as Carmine. Therefore, what we expect from you is this: first, we want an explanation for Monsieur Savoi’s actions. Second, we demand that you retrieve all of the applications, which were filed thus far. And last, if you wish to do business in our country in the future, we will need formal representation from your company to be made to our government in order for us to process any application you would care to introduce to this office.”
In truth, Talya had been expecting some sort of reproof, but the mention of bribing had been icing on the cake. She had to get legal advice. The bulldog was right.
Monsieur Kane got up, and while accepting Talya’s second-hand confounded apologies, he said, “I would like to see Carmine working in Mali, Madame Kartz, but at this point, I’m afraid you may have to start from scratch.”
$500,000 later and I have to start from scratch? One way or another Savoi is going to pay for this.
After a few words of parting, Chantal and Talya left. She had taken some notes during the meeting and had listened to Monsieur Kane’s pointed comments without a word, but as they were walking down the stairs toward the car park, Chantal found her voice again.
“No wonder it felt so cold in that office. He really took the gloves off didn’t he?” she said from over her shoulder.
“He sure did. Mind you he may have had good reasons,” Talya replied dryly.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Think about it, Chantal. That’s what I’m going to do ... think about it.”
As they drove to the hotel, Talya’s thoughts went back to Monsieur Kane’s comments and a picture of Savoi’s scheme began to take shape in her mind’s eye. Representing Carmine, he must have approached twelve landowners (maybe more) telling them that Carmine would come on their land, mine their property and produce gold. In exchange for which, these proprietors were promised a share of the profits, possibly an advance on royalties or any other item that would have them sign on the dotted line. However, Talya wasn’t unduly worried about these promises; what really worried her was that the landowners must have paid Savoi a finders’ fee for getting a mining company of Carmine’s standing to consider mining their land. Each of these fees would have to be reimbursed.
Then, with twelve contracts in hand, giving Savoi (and Carmine) access to the properties, Monsieur Savoi filed the first series of permit applications for a small sum handed under the table to twelve different government employees. How he could conceivably do this, and hope to get away with it, was beyond Talya. The fact remained that they had yet twelve, probably by now, very angry landowners on their hands, who had been promised the moon and were going to get zilch for their troubles, and a Minister’s advisor ready to throw the book at them. Moreover, Carmine was now accused of attempting to corrupt the system, and it followed that the company was thought to be speculating on the premise of being awarded twelve permits, when in fact, none were to be granted for now.
When they were back at the Grand, and found a comfortable seat on the terrace near the pool, Talya asked Chantal to phone Savoi’s office to see if anyone had seen him in the last few days. She returned shortly afterwards with a ‘no’ answer written across her face.
“No one has seen him for days, so what do you want to do now?”
“I’ve got to try to find Savoi ... but first I need to find a lawyer that will help me straighten out the mess with the landowners …” Talya went on and drew the ‘picture’ for Chantal.
When she finished with her little explanation, Chantal was staring at her. “You mean to tell me that we are going to have these people coming down demanding a reimbursement of the finders’ fee?” She had a worried look on her face.
“Yes, and you can expect them to be on their way right now, if they have been alerted of my arrival in town.”
“Good Gracious! How are we going to handle these people? And with Jean-Claude on his way to Belgium ... how can we manage?”
A worrisome prospect indeed.
They sat in silence for a minute then Chantal put her mouth in motion again. “Which of these properties does Carmine want anyway? I seem to recall Jean-Claude saying that you were interested in the Kankoon land, is that still the case?”
“Absolutely. That’s the only piece of property Carmine has ever been interested in exploring. Yet, even if we obtain an exploration permit, it means years of work, literally, before we will see the first ounce of gold coming out of the smelter.”
“I see,” Chantal said, looking down at the floor beneath her feet, realizing now the enormity of the problem, perhaps for the first time. “What if you carried on as if nothing happened, and let Savoi handle the landowners?” She was obviously trying to find a way to avoid having to face the proprietors.
“I don’t think so.” Talya shook her head. “Because don’t forget, Carmine’s name is on all of the documentation and quite possibly on all of the contracts that Savoi signed with these people. Ultimately we are responsible for making empty promises, and in turn, we will have to reimburse each and every one of these people.”
While Chantal seemed lost in thought, Talya caught the waiter’s eye and ordered a couple of juices. She then went on, “The first thing I’m going to do is to call James and tell him what’s happening and get him to send me a power-of-attorney so that I’ll have some authority to do something around here.”
Still pensive, absentmindedly almost, Chantal said, “I guess a lawyer could take the reins and see if he could negotiate some sort of settlement with these proprietors.”
“That will be his first task and afterwards—when things settle down—I can re-apply for the Kankoon concession.”
“Yes, that’s sounds like a plan.” Chantal sounded unconvinced. “I’ll get Jean-Claude to assemble all of the documentation he had prepared to file the Kankoon application, before he leaves. You may need it.”
“Thanks. The problem is where do I find a lawyer in this town?”
“I could try phoning a few people…”
Talya nodded. “Yes, that would help, but not right now. I need to talk to James first.” She paused, pondering. “I don’t know why, but Savoi’s absence is beginning to worry me. We’ve sent him a fax nearly a week ago now. He should have made a point of being in his office, at least.”
“And Jean-Claude tried to call him, when you told him you were coming, and he wasn’t there then.”
“Yes, I know he told me he hadn’t seen him. Anyway, no use dwelling on that now, I’ll just call James and see what he says. Do you want to come back later? Or better, I’ll call you to tell you what James suggests, Okay?”
Chantal agreed and went home reluctantly. Talya could see she would have rather stayed and perhaps do some more picture drawing with her.
Talya drank the rest of her orange juice, went to her room and called James at the office to let him know where they stood. She didn’t reach him; he was out at some meeting or other.
10
“Monsieur Savoi?”
“Yes. Who is this?”
“No need for introduction. I am calling you in regards to your investments in our company. We have never met, but Monsieur Hjamal has spoken highly of your endeavours in Africa.”
“Has he now?” Savoi was flattered.
“Yes…, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want