PDO’s managing director Raoul Restucci calls on contractors to be ethical (Image courtesy of PDO)Oman’s national oil company Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) warned nearly 200 executives from 140 contractor firms they face being blacklisted if they fail to comply with stringent policies on anti-bribery and corruption.
PDO’s managing director Raoul Restucci said illegal conduct won’t be tolerated, Oil Patch Asia said.
“This is an area that we need to promptly and completely eradicate,” Restucci said.
He added: “PDO will blacklist companies that don’t abide by our rules on anti-bribery and corruption.
Anti-bribery and corruption forms part of a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and working practices, environmental and social performance that are at the heart of the company’s reputation.”
Restucci called on contractors to use PDO’s confidential “blow the whistle” hotline or to engage directly with him and PDO directors to report any suspicions or concerns.
In November, the head of the tenders committee at PDO went on trial for taking a bribe from two local executives.
In March, a court in Oman sentenced the CEO of state-owned Oman Oil Company, Ahmad al-Wahaibi, to 23 years in jail for taking bribes, abusing his office, and money laundering.
A former aide to the minister of the now-dissolved economy ministry, Adel al-Raisi, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for organizing a bribe that was offered to al-Wahaibi by a senior official from South Korea-based LGI.
The LGI official, Myung Jao Yoo, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for paying an $8 million bribe to a Caribbean-registered company owned by al-Wahaibi to secure a large-scale petrochemical project in Oman.
Oman’s National Gas Company’s chief executive, Goutam Sen, was detained last month by the public prosecutor over suspected bribery.
Oman’s Sultan Qaboos has waged an anti-graft campaign to defuse mass protests in several Omani cities that began in 2011.
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Richard L. Cassin is the Publisher and Editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here.
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