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29-10-2005 Scotsman Weir Group pledges fresh inquiry into GBP 2.5 million 'bribes' to Saddam By Gethin Chamberlain Chief News Correspondent THE Scottish company accused of handing dollars 4.5 million (GBP 2.5 million) in bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime yesterday promised to launch a fresh investigation into the members of staff involved. Glasgow-based Weir Group also pledged to cooperate with any criminal investigation into its role in the oil-for-food scandal which has rocked the United Nations. The company saw GBP 13 million wiped off its share price after the committee investigating the scandal ruled it had knowingly paid kickbacks to secure multi-million pound contracts to supply Iraq's oil industry. However, Weir chief executive Mark Selway argued that the bribes would not necessarily have come to the attention of senior managers because "for a company of our size 4.3 million is not something that would necessarily go on our radar screen". Despite the committee's findings, no members of staff involved in the payment of bribes to the Iraqi regime have been dismissed by the Weir Group as a result of the scandal. Mr Selway said the company had reviewed its procedures, retrained staff and terminated its contract with the Iraqi agent it blamed for making the payments. He said about 50 senior staff were called into headquarters for a one-day workshop on "the rights and wrongs of doing business in some of these areas", and he promised another internal investigation into new evidence presented in the committee's report. "We are a bit disappointed that it has identified some documents and a small number of very low-value contracts that we weren't aware of and which will require further investigation by the group. "We will need to review the situation further and decide if there are any further disciplinary actions that need to be taken." Weir had initially denied the allegations, but later accepted there was evidence of what Mr Selway described as "wrongdoing". However, the committee complained that the company had not done all that it could to assist the investigation. In an e-mail to the committee dated 6 October 2005, the company secretary Alan Mitchelson refused to allow copies to be made of relevant documents. The committee's report also noted that in interviews with Mr Mitchelson in June and October, and in e-mails exchanged this month, the company had refused to compel its employees to take part in the investigation. Yesterday Mr Selway said Weir had been "absolutely supportive" of the committee's investigation. He said the company had been unable to compel staff to give evidence, but he was unable to explain why Mr Mitchelson had refused permission to copy documents. However, he did say that the company had offered to allow the US-based committee to view documents at its offices in Glasgow. "There wasn't anything to hide behind," he said. "Those files were made available to them and if the...committee desperately needed them, they could have come and had a look at them." He defended Mr Mitchelson's conduct, adding: "I trust Alan with my life. He is a very senior and capable guy." News of Weir Group's involvement in the scandal sent the group's shares down another 2 per cent, knocking GBP 13 million off its market capitalisation, down from GBP 709m to GBP 696m. Shares in the group have now fallen 12 per cent since the end of September. The oil-for-food programme, which ran from 1996-2003, allowed Iraq to sell limited and then unlimited quantities of oil with the provision that most of the money went to buy humanitarian goods. But Saddam, who could choose the buyers of Iraqi oil and the sellers of humanitarian goods, corrupted the programme by awarding contracts to - and getting kickbacks from - favoured buyers. Meanwhile, the MP George Galloway is again trying to clear his name after he was named in the report as a political beneficiary of the oil-for-food programme. The report said Iraq had allocated 18 million barrels of oil to him and an associate. Yesterday he travelled to Paris for meetings with lawyers representing former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, who is reported to have provided evidence which forms part of the case against Mr Galloway. Speaking in Paris after a meeting with Mr Aziz's lawyer, Maitre Emmanuel Ludot, he claimed the testimony from Mr Aziz was false and launched an attack on the chairman of the US senate committee which accused him of profiting from the oil-for-food scheme, and on the chairman of the inquiry committee. "J'accuse," said Mr Galloway. "Firstly, Senator Norm Coleman for fabricating it and Paul Volcker for going along with it."
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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