A Change of Guard

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Monday 31 May 2010

OZ embassy responds to Securency

Monday, 31 May 2010
By David Boyle
Phnom Penh Post

IN RESPONSE to allegations that a Melbourne-based currency producer had engaged in graft in Cambodia, the Australian embassy in Phnom Penh said Sunday that the company’s executives had been warned of “Australia’s zero tolerance to bribery”, but that the embassy had not been in touch with the company’s local commissioning agent.

Last week, Australian Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Greens Party, said during a senate committee hearing that agents employed by Securency might have bribed local officials.

The company – a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia – manufactures polymer bank notes that are used in nearly 30 countries.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is already investigating whether the company’s commissioning agents offered huge bribes to officials in Malaysia, Vietnam, Nigeria and Indonesia.

“The embassy is aware that Securency was in discussions with the Royal Government,” the embassy said in a statement Sunday, adding that officials from the Australian trade commission and the department of foreign affairs and trade had “assisted” the company “in line with the department’s and Austrade’s guidelines for assisting Australian businesses”.

The statement said embassy officials did not know how long Securency had been negotiating with the government, or whether those negotiations had ended, but said it fell to the company to “conduct proper due diligence on potential business partners before entering a deal”.

The embassy said it had not been in contact with Daryl Dealehr, Securency’s commissioning agent in Cambodia who is also treasurer of the Cambodia Association of Mining and Exploration Companies and the owner of Cambodian Resources Ltd.

Dealehr declined to comment on Sunday.

Brown’s office was unable to elaborate further on Securency’s domestic operations when contacted last week, and pointed to documents already on the public record.

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