TM, Axiata form committees to examine claims of improper payments by Alca-Lu

Malaysian fixed line incumbent Telekom Malaysia™ and the former holding company for the telco’s international interests, Axiata Group, have announced that they have each created sub-committees which will carry out internal investigations into claims regarding improper payments by French-US vendor Alcatel-Lucent. According to the Wall Street Journal, both companies have said that they are working closely with those parties interested in the matter, which has come to the fore after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice released documents last week that allege Alca-Lu bribed TM employees in exchange for information that had not been publically disclosed; Axiata was still part of TM at the time of the alleged improprieties. ‘The Board Audit Committee (BAC) Sub-Committee will submit their report and findings to the BAC for further guidance and the next course of action,’ TM said of the development. Having last week agreed to pay more than USD137 million to settle charges of bribing foreign government officials in Latin America and Asia before 2006, Alca-Lu said of this recent claim: ‘It would be inappropriate for us to comment on this, other than to say we will cooperate with investigations … We have a zero-tolerance policy regarding bribery and corruption and a system in place with strong processes and training designed to prevent these types of situations in all aspects of our business.’