BAHRAIN COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM NATIONAL AUDIT COURTGulf Daily News'Secrets' stolen

MANAMA: Two laptop computers belonging to employees of the National Audit Court (NAC) were stolen from their office at Alba, the company said yesterday.

The computers were stolen on Wednesday from the office in the smelter complex.

The theft follows the October publication of the NAC's 2004 annual review, which detailed several violations by Alba, as well as irregularities at Bapco, government ministries, the Tourism Directorate and the General Organisation for Social Insurance.

Alba was accused of violations including accepting bids after deadlines had expired, approving bids that failed to meet quality and legal standards, renewing a 10-year contract with ALCOA without renegotiating the terms, awarding a shipping contract without inviting bids, failing to explain decisions when awarding contracts to suppliers although they didn't submit the lowest bids and conducting negotiations that violated board rules and regulations.

An Arabic newspaper reported yesterday that the stolen computers belonged to Alba and contained the company's "trade secrets". However, the company denied this in a statement, adding that investigations were underway.