Bombardier Transportation confirmed that it paid a Tunisian businessman to act as an intermediary as it worked to secure a contract in South Africa, a process it says is common place in unfamiliar countries, but denies reports of wrongdoing.

The Montreal-based company has been accused by South African newspaper The Mail and Guardian of involvement in a bribery scheme involving $35 million paid to Youssef Zarrouk, a “Tunisian fixer,” which the paper said was “evidence suggestive of bribery in the R$26-billion Gautrain contract.”

Bombardier spokesman John Macdonald said the company had an agreement with Zarrouk for his help in navigating the market, adding that Bombardier has a very stringent selection process in choosing agents as well as a commitment to honouring its code of ethics.

“When we go into a geography where we’re not familiar with the market it is quite normal (that Bombardier) would hire an agent or multiple agents,” he said.

“And the agent is the individual who actually helps getting our business development team and our sales team up to speed and helps us in the responding to requests for proposals and how to best promote our product in a particular market.”

Bombardier is the lead partner in the Bombela consortium that won the contract in 2005 to build and operate the Gauteng rapid-rail system.

“The Tunisian who received the Bombardier commission is an international arms and projects fixer who was influential in the notoriously corrupt regime of Ben Ali, the first president toppled in the Arab Spring last year,” the paper alleged.

The newspaper said it has obtained an early version of the contract between Bombardier and Zarrouk’s Tunis-based All Trade Company that outlined it would pay him six per cent of the contract value if their bid was successful. It cited a source saying the figure was reduced from $54 million to $35 million.

Macdonald said he could not comment on details of agreements with any of the company’s agents, but said $35 million would not be unusual for an agent’s pay.

The paper claims that at the time Bombardier’s consortium was campaigning to win the Gautrain contract, Zarrouk enlisted his colleague Jean-Marc Pizano, a Frenchman who runs Advanced Technologies & Engineering, which had a history in South African arms projects.

The Mail and Guardian cited a memorandum allegedly sent by Pizano to Bombardier in November 2004, two months before bidders were to submit their final offers, in which Pizano told the company that a major barrier could be “the overriding fact that our price is much higher than the competition,” proposing an intense lobbying campaign.