As Nils Pratley says in the Guardian this morning:
It's becoming increasingly hard to spot the corporate good guys.
Rolls-Royce, the company that gets more favourable name-checks from ministers than even John Lewis, on Thursday said it had passed information about bribery and corruption allegations among intermediaries to the Serious Fraud Office.
Now what's the betting those transactions went through a tax haven using exactly the same structures that are used for tax avoidance? Close to 100% certain, I'd say.
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Hold on. These are intermediaries that allegedly commited the offence. Yes Rolls Royce appoint them but they do not own them or control them. Once they discovered the intermediaries may have done something wrong they informed the SFO.
I’m not sure what else they can do. If they had attempted to cover it up, or if they were involved in the activity themselves, then you can blame them, but I think this is unwarrented criticism of Rolls Royce on the face of what is publicly known.
Oh come on: it’s the easiest thing to move the blame in that way
Did the so-called “intermediaries” pay for the bribes out of their own pockets? I think not.
Where would the money for the bribes have come from?
There’s only one answer to that. Ultimately only from Rolls Royce.
Roger
according to the FT this wasn’t unprompted. The SFO enquired & RR then held their hands up.
Fair play, they seem to have come clean v quickly & the FT suggests the SFO are giving them credit for that.
TBBH, I don’t know what the likes of RR are supposed to do. If we had Robin Cook’s fabled “ethical foreign policy” the answer would be clear. In ceratin countries, if you don’t pay bribes you don’t get orders & the quality & value of your product is completely irrelevant.
Cutting edge product at affordable prices won’t get the defence minister a house in Knightsbridge, his children at Eton & a Harrods Goldcard for the missus, will it ?