From the departure lounge of Julius Nyerere international airport in Dar es Salaam, the radar system at the centre of the furore certainly does not look like much. Atop a drab grey building about 20ft by 20ft between the runways, a radar antenna rotates slowly.

And sometimes it does not. For part of 2007, the radar worked only intermittently, hobbled by Tanzania’s erratic power supply and a faulty back-up battery provided by BAE, according to an airport employee. Repairs were delayed because no one knew how to fix the equipment.

By all accounts, the system was unnecessary — Tanzania’s tiny air force already had radar. Now that the Serious Fraud Office is asking the Government to prosecute BAE, Tanzanian politicians who have long opposed the deal are considering investigations of their own. “We did not need the facility because we are a poor country and we couldn’t afford it,” Wilbroad Slaa, a Member of Parliament, said.

The $40 million Tanzania paid BAE equals about half the amount it receives in debt relief annually.

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