COMPANIES
Sasol is 'not being probed'
Posted Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Sasol has denounced as "damaging and spurious" a claim that it is to be investigated for bribery. "We take strong exception to unsubstantiated public claims made against Sasol," it said in reaction to the allegations contained in a front-page article in Business Day on Tuesday. The newspaper reported that Namibian and South African authorities could punish Sasol if it was found guilty of corruption charges relating to a R2.4-billion fuel-supply transaction in Namibia. The newspaper quoted Namibian Anti-Corruption Commission director Paulos Noa as saying Sasol would be investigated for bribery. Senior Namibian officials had allegedly been enriched by the deal to supply R800-million of fuel a year to Namibia for three years. Noa claimed he had been misquoted, Sasol said in a statement on Tuesday. He had confirmed to Sasol that "he has not received any complaints regarding Sasol, and that the commission is not investigating Sasol". "Instead, he has confirmed
that the commission will investigate allegations regarding irregularities in the awarding of a state tender contract to (National Liquid Fuels)," it said. Sasol said NLF, incorporated in Namibia, was 51 percent owned by the Namibian company, Philco Twenty Limited, and 49 percent by Sasol Oil Limited. NLF was awarded a three-year tender in mid-2004 by the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) — a parastatal responsible for petroleum products supply to the country — to supply 50 percent of Namibia's liquid fuel requirements from January 2005. NLF sourced this fuel from Sasol Oil. The rest of Namibia's requirements were sourced from other oil companies operating in Namibia. "Sasol will co-operate fully with the Namibian authorities to ensure that all the relevant information is made available," it said. "To the best of our knowledge, the tender process and subsequent awarding of the contract followed proper procedure in accordance with
Sasol's values and ethical standards as a respectable corporate citizen. "We are not aware of any irregularities involving Sasol, NLF or our Namibian partners in relation to the tender." The company said an investigation last year by Namibia's Central Governance Agency had not found any irregularities with the process of awarding the tender. Sasol did not know the source of any "public complaints" about the transaction, but believed that with transactions of this nature "there will always be parties who are dissatisfied with perhaps being excluded from participating in the transaction in some form or the other".
Sapa
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