NEW YORK - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether or not Enron Corp. bribed foreign government officials to win contracts in Ghana & five other countries.

The US Justice Department's Enron Task Force is examining the energy company's non-U.S. operations for possible criminal violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the paper said citing government officials and lawyers close to the case.

Enron was quoted in the Journal as denying ever paying bribes, and said that it had "a clear anticorruption policy prohibiting the payment, solicitation and receipt of bribes in any form."

The inquiry centers on Enron's efforts to win foreign pipeline, power and water-privatization projects, as far back as the mid-1990s, the sources were cited as saying.

In some countries, projects were awarded to Enron without competitive bidding, or assets were acquired at below-market values, according to the Journal, amid allegations by the World Bank and others of government favoritism.

Claims of corruption in Enron power or water projects have arisen over the years in several countries, including Ghana, Colombia, Bolivia, Panama, Nigeria and the Dominican Republic, the paper said.

Enron filed for bankruptcy last year after it collapsed amid accounting irregularities.

The Journal also reported that while charges against former Enron executives were only a matter of time, they still could take weeks, or even months, given the complexities and scope of the activities underlying the Houston company's collapse.

‘WITHOUT REAL COMPETITION’

In Ghana, the World Bank in 2000 suspended its support for a $100 million water project after it was awarded to Enron’s Azurix unit. “We were concerned the award was sole-source, without real competition,” a World Bank official said last week. “We advised the government we couldn’t finance it, because of the way the procurement was done.” After the award, the bank’s Ghana director, Peter Harrold, sent a harshly worded letter to Ghana’s then-Vice President John Atta-Mills canceling the loan and alleging corruption. “We cannot have made it plainer to you that the key issue is transparency,” he wrote. “The arrangement you have reached with Azurix is one that has been arrived at on a completely nontransparent basis.”

World Bank officials cited a draft schedule of payments showing an unexplained, $5 million up-front payment by Enron. An Enron spokeswoman at the time denied reports in the Ghana press the $5 million was for government officials; a new Ghanian government has since suspended the award, and is now seeking competitive bids.