Iconic Australian firm facing bribery investigations
PHOTO: The office of Sri Lanka's president Maithreepala Sirisena allegedly sought a political donation when he was a cabinet minister.The iconic Snowy Mountains Engineering Company (SMEC) is the subject of a major AFP probe examining the firm's overseas operations.
7.30 can reveal SMEC's overseas staff allegedly bribed officials to secure a $2.3 million aid-funded sewerage project in Sri Lanka in 2011, and a smaller power plant project in Bangladesh in 2007.
Leaked internal company emails also reveal claims from SMEC's Sri Lankan manager in 2009 that then senior minister Maithripala Sirisena and one of his advisers allegedly requested a political "donation" before signing cabinet papers for a $1.82 million dam contract sought by SMEC. Mr Sirisena is now Sri Lanka's President.
"The minister ... wants to know whether SMEC could make a donation for the elections," an email from the SMEC manager states about his meeting with Mr Sirisena.
The same email states: "[Mr Sirisena's] Coordinating Secretary said this is the way it goes prior to signing the cabinet papers. He wants us to produce an amount/percentage on the contract value."
In a statement overnight, Mr Sirisena said he had "no knowledge of the incident" and requested further details to "ascertain the involvement of any of his office staff".
The President also said he would co-operate "in any investigation" in Australia and "will also instruct the relevant local authorities to investigate".
The SMEC Sri Lankan manager also wrote he wanted to "inform the minister/co-ordinating secretary" of the size of a suspected kickback to be paid. In another email, the manager said he needed to "prioritise" certain payments to unnamed parties "since the signing of the contract would depend" on it.
In a statement, SMEC confirmed there was a "request for a political donation".
But it said its internal investigation had found that no payment was ever made by the company in response, and the firm "continues to fully cooperate with the AFP".