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Former Garuda boss denies allegations of receiving Rolls-Royce bribes
January 20th 2017
Former Garuda Indonesia boss, Emirsyah Satar, who is credited with the flag carrier’s successful restructuring from 2005 to 2014 has denied he accepted bribes from Rolls-Royce (RR) for engine procurement contracts for A330 aircraft.
"As far as I know, when I was president-CEO of PT. Garuda Indonesia, I have never done corrupt activities and I did not receive anything for my position," he said on Friday. Read More »
"The suspect (Emirsyah Satar) allegedly received bribes comprising 1.2 million Euros and $180,000 in cash, as well as $2 million in assets in Singapore and Indonesia," Laode M. Syarief, the deputy chairman of Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said on Thursday.
The KPK’s announcement followed a landmark court hearing in London on Tuesday, where Rolls-Royce admitted to paying bribes to middlemen to secure contracts for engines in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia and Thailand. The manufacturer agreed to pay $820 million in penalties.
The British Serious Fraud Office said it knew of two commission payments Rolls-Royce made to its intermediary with Garuda in March 2012, despite knowing the intermediary was "acting corruptly" on Rolls Royce's behalf.
"There is an inference that Rolls-Royce failed to prevent its intermediary from bribing employees of Garuda," the British anti-corruption agency said. Specifically, the charges related to contracts for the manufacturer’s Trent 700 engines and maintenance agreements for Garuda’s A330 orders. The Indonesian airline placed its first A330 order in 1989. Last year, it signed for 14 A330neos, including a $1.2 billion Rolls-Royce engine and support package.
In Thailand, Rolls-Royce allegedly paid $36.4 million in bribes from 1991 to 2005 to “agents of the state of Thailand and employees of Thai Airways”. At press time, no individuals at THAI had named.
Thai Airways International (THAI) was quick to react to the UK court decision by setting up a task force headed by Pichait Riengvattanasuk, vice-president of risk management, and advisors from the office of THAI’s president, Charamporn Jotikasthira.
