Ranhill, Petronas and Keppel implicated in Unaoil's "bribery scandal"? (4)

And Petronas has also reacted according to an article in The Edge:


“Petronas takes the allegations very seriously,” the statement read. “The company has a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of bribery and corruption and expressly prohibits improper solicitation, bribery and other corrupt activity by employees, directors and third parties performing work or services for or on behalf of companies in the Petronas group.”


It is by far the best statement of the three companies mentioned in the Unaoil scandal: Ranhill, Petronas and Keppel.

The journalists who have uncovered the scandal claim to have a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of documents, emails etc. Even if a company has a zero-tolerance against bribery it can never be sure that each and everyone of its thousands of employees follows the code. So the only wise thing is to be open to allegations, to take them seriously and to investigate.


Keppel wrote: "Keppel has a code of conduct which prohibits, among others, bribery and corruption.".

But in the documents uncovered by the journalists it is written: "Unaoil regarded Keppel as an ideal client because Keppel had lax anti-corruption controls compared with Unaoil’s other multinational clients."

Keppel therefore should at the very least re-evaluate its anti-corruption controls, how they stack up against other multinational companies.


Regarding Ranhill, the full court case between Unaoil and Amona Ranhill consortium Sdn Bhd can be found here.

The names of "Ranhill" and "Unaoil" are mentioned each dozens of time, with many big shots of Ranhill being named, having directly negotiated with the top of Unaoil.

Ranhill Holdings (the currently listed entity) wrote:

".... neither Ranhill Holdings Berhad nor any of its group of companies has entered into any transaction or arrangement with Unaoil."

The company should at the very least specify the exact relationship between Unaoil and the former Ranhill Bhd and its subsidiaries, and what the implications are for the current Ranhill Holdings Bhd.

The announcement by Ranhill Holdings (written in typical "Menglish", that is Malaysian English, bit surprising for an official announcement) also mentioned:

"..... we practise code of conduct and good business ethics".

Not everybody might agree with that: