Amec to pay £5m after SFO investigation into 'irregular' payments

Oct 28 2009 by Graeme Brown, Birmingham Post

Engineering firm Amec is having to pay almost £5 million to the Serious Fraud Office after uncovering “irregular” payments made to it on a major project.

Amec discovered “certain irregular receipts” of around £5.5 million paid to the firm between November 2005 and early 2007 on the Incheon bridge project in South Korea.

It approached the SFO in March last year after an internal investigation. The watchdog has not launched proceedings following a probe, but said Amec’s records of the payments breached parts of the Companies Act.

The FTSE 100 company has agreed to pay £4.9 million plus costs under a Civil Recovery Order obtained by the SFO.

The SFO said: “Following detection of these irregularities Amec is improving its ethics, compliance and accounting standards.

“As part of the settlement Amec has agreed to appoint an independent consultant to review these improvements and report their findings to the SFO.”

Amec said it was “committed to the highest ethical standards” and gained “no improper commercial advantage” through the receipts.

“As recognised by the SFO, Amec acted promptly and responsibly in connection with the matter and Amec has co-operated with the SFO throughout the investigation,” it added.

Amec last week celebrated the grand opening of the £1 billion, 12.3km Incheon Bridge. It is a 24 per cent shareholder in the Incheon Bridge Company (IBC), a consortium between Amec and Incheon City in South Korea, backed by Australian infrastructure specialist Macquarie and Korean banks IBK and Kookmin.

IBC holds the concession to operate and maintain the bridge for the next 30 years.